Joanna Johnston, you do not have to be good
Double exposure in camera. Archival pigment print, back mounted on Dibond, face mounted acrylic.
Edition of 3. 2/3 available.
40" x 60"
Available for purchase only. Please allow for 3 weeks turnaround for printing.
Inspired by M. Oliver's poem Wild Geese, 'You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves, this series is about surrender.
There is a human story in an unmade bed.
The dent in the pillow, creases in the sheets, the way blankets or duvets fall across the bed or even maybe to the floor.
Visible traces our bodies leave after the passage of our time there.
In our beds we give over to sleep.
It is a profound trust we place in our bodies, to let go of our conscious mind.
It is the soft animal of our bodies that yields to wonder; the soft animal that dreams, unaware of how we move, what we look like or how we sound.
Branches sway, leaves filter the light, the weight of the summer heat is somehow abated by the density of the green.
It is outside our control, without visible structure, it is something unknown to us yet a part of us. Nature is the unconscious; nature is the dream.
Joanna Johnston was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1973. She came to her photography practice after working for 10 years as an architect. For her, architecture is integral to how we feel and to the broader human experience. It conveys messages to our senses even if we are not consciously aware of the impacts. As a child, she stood at the edge of her father's drafting table, enthralled, as he created space for people to live in, to feel and experience life. This taught her the underlying principle that spaces communicate. If our buildings cut us off from nature, we are depleted spiritually. If they connect us, we are enriched and satiated.
Joanna's life has been shaped by three major events. The first was winning a research prize to study exemplary hospital design in Europe which prompted her to leave architecture. This study inspired her first public photography exhibition, where she explored the effect that space has on mental health patients. The final event was uprooting and leaving Toronto for Europe for 8 years, where she was fully immersed in her photographic practice. This cultural shift pushed her projects in new directions with the framework of inquiry remaining the same. Architecture has the power to negotiate our relationship to nature and ourselves. Exploring this relationship and its effect on us, is at the heart of her work.
Please contact us for more information about this work.
Edition of 3. 2/3 available.
40" x 60"
Available for purchase only. Please allow for 3 weeks turnaround for printing.
Inspired by M. Oliver's poem Wild Geese, 'You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves, this series is about surrender.
There is a human story in an unmade bed.
The dent in the pillow, creases in the sheets, the way blankets or duvets fall across the bed or even maybe to the floor.
Visible traces our bodies leave after the passage of our time there.
In our beds we give over to sleep.
It is a profound trust we place in our bodies, to let go of our conscious mind.
It is the soft animal of our bodies that yields to wonder; the soft animal that dreams, unaware of how we move, what we look like or how we sound.
Branches sway, leaves filter the light, the weight of the summer heat is somehow abated by the density of the green.
It is outside our control, without visible structure, it is something unknown to us yet a part of us. Nature is the unconscious; nature is the dream.
Joanna Johnston was born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in 1973. She came to her photography practice after working for 10 years as an architect. For her, architecture is integral to how we feel and to the broader human experience. It conveys messages to our senses even if we are not consciously aware of the impacts. As a child, she stood at the edge of her father's drafting table, enthralled, as he created space for people to live in, to feel and experience life. This taught her the underlying principle that spaces communicate. If our buildings cut us off from nature, we are depleted spiritually. If they connect us, we are enriched and satiated.
Joanna's life has been shaped by three major events. The first was winning a research prize to study exemplary hospital design in Europe which prompted her to leave architecture. This study inspired her first public photography exhibition, where she explored the effect that space has on mental health patients. The final event was uprooting and leaving Toronto for Europe for 8 years, where she was fully immersed in her photographic practice. This cultural shift pushed her projects in new directions with the framework of inquiry remaining the same. Architecture has the power to negotiate our relationship to nature and ourselves. Exploring this relationship and its effect on us, is at the heart of her work.
Please contact us for more information about this work.
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