Johanna Jackson: Dust December 1–January 6, 2018
THERE HAS BEEN DUST IN THE CITY. ENVIRONMENTAL WICKEDNESS BUT WE’D PUT THAT BEHIND US. EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT AND WE WERENT DOING THAT ANYMORE.
HERE IS A ESTIVAL HONORING ART COMMERCE AND SHAME D.D.M. IS THERE ALREADY SITTING IN A HOLE
I OF COURSE ARRIVE A DAY LATE, AND RUN RIGHT INTO THE OCEAN GREETING IT. HI TO YOU! THE WATER IS HOT. THE SKY SUDDENLY DARKENS ALL THE WAY.
Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce Dust, a solo exhibition with new text paintings and sculptural objects by Johanna Jackson. Dust opens with a reception with the artist on Friday, December 1 and is on view through December 23.
For the exhibition, Jackson has created three new text paintings on shaped panels, each featuring a dream narrative transcribed by the artist in a state between sleep and wakefulness. Using a billowy font that tends to slow reading, the artist makes the reader shift and refocus, carefully considering each word and phrase. These brief, surreal texts, akin to automatic writing or psychography, exist between subconscious mutterings and a supernatural or spiritual poetry.
In two of these paintings, Jackson references "dust." Dust, a humble accumulation of particles and bits of earth carried through the air, can represent the passing of time, monotony, the cyclical nature of life and death. All of these themes, in turn, make appearances in Jackson's sculptural objects, some made for use and some for metaphor, out of fiber, food or clay.
Transforming common objects and materials with a personal alchemy and a strong sense of belief, Jackson crafts mysterious works that are imbued with gravity and ritual. Sculptural objects and domestically-scaled installations are simultaneously recognizable, yet abstracted beyond utility as Jackson explores the confluence of life and work, art and craft, magic and the ordinary.
Jackson’s process is key and present in each work as she investigates the properties of her materials. Through touch, clay is fashioned into objects that evoke time or the sun. Wool becomes a blanket which proudly displays the mistakes inherent when one is learning a new stitch. By engaging in the creative process this way, Jackson investigates the meaning of making and the animism of objects, many of which strongly embody a position that could be called anti-form.
Central to Jackson's installation at Adams and Ollman is a hooked rug, one of four that the artist has made to date. Rug hooking has a long tradition along the Eastern Seaboard, where the artist was born, and has humble beginnings, often made with scraps by poor women to cover their floors and weave their stories. Jackson’s contribution to this tradition features a can of sardines, setting up a curious narrative. These fish, dead and in a box, could stand in for nourishment or claustrophobia. A handheld mirror made from glass and ceramic suggests wisdom and self-knowledge. Used as a symbol throughout art history, the mirror can show us something that we might not otherwise be able to see. Alternately, the artist may be giving us insight into the life of her making.
Johanna Jackson was born in 1972 in Springfield, Massachusetts and currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. Solo and two-person exhibitions include: "bow bow" with Sahar Khoury at CANADA, New York; “The Middle Riddle” with Chris Johanson at the Journal Gallery, Brooklyn; "What It Means to Learn" with Dana Dart-McLean at Human Resources in Los Angeles; "The Big Fig" at the Portland Museum of Modern Art, Oregon; and “Money on Fire,” a video commission for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Her work has also been exhibited in group shows at the Oakland Museum of California; Marlborough Gallery, New York; Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; among others.
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
installation view: Dust
Johanna Jackson
A Festival, 2017
watercolor, varnish and gesso on tin
18 x 27 x 2 1/2 inches
JJAC 49
Johanna Jackson
Hawthorne, 2017
watercolor, varnish and gesso on tin
20 x 23 x 3 inches
JJAC 50
Johanna Jackson
Soup with Dust, 2017
watercolor, varnish and gesso on tin
27 x 19 x 2 1/2 inches
JJAC 51
Johanna Jackson
Mirror, 2017
porcelain and mirror
8 x 6 x 1/2 inches
JJAC 52
Johanna Jackson
Pot Consumed by Its Lid, 2017
porcelain
6 1/2 x 5 x 5 inches
JJAC 53
Johanna Jackson
Candelabra, 2017
porcelain
10 x 6 x 3 inches
JJAC 54
Johanna Jackson
Candelabra, 2017
porcelain
11 1/4 x 10 x 3 inches
JJAC 57
Johanna Jackson
Apple Doll, 2017
canvas, buckweat grouts, wook, apple, lemon, salt, watercolor and ash, wool, concrete, pigment
4 1/2 x 10 x 9 inches
JJAC 56
Johanna Jackson
Rug, 2017
dyed wool, monk’s cloth
1 1/2 x 32 x 47 inches
JJAC 55