HELEN JOHNSON : DEAD METAPHOR

26 Jan-29 Jan 2012

Overview

The work in Dead Metaphor consists of a series of silk hangings that have been dyed and painted, their subject matter ranging from loom threads to early computer punch-cards to women modelling soviet silk couture. The subject matter of each work is derived from a different place and time, but each is connected through a narrative relation to the material on which it is painted. The works exhibit lateral rather than direct connections, and by the nature of the free-hanging, sheer material they begin to overlap and feed into one another in unexpected ways. There is a formal ambiguity to the works, which can be read as paintings or as floating partitions. The dead metaphor is not something that has ceased to be, but something that has been rendered invisible through continuous use - taken as read, as with the outcomes of industrialisation. - Helen Johnson, January 2012