To find comfort in the unknown, becoming disconnected and looking for moments of connection.
All work is shot in analogue and developed in her London studio. It is an idealisation of memories and melancholy, memorialised keepsakes normally akin to photographs and photo albums. Johnston operates in a meditative state of setting up a staged set. With everything intentioned from lighting right through to the placing of objects. After completing the shoot, it is straight to the darkroom to process the film. Johnston has described this rhythmic practice as akin to an 'obsession'. She can spend up to 8 hours a day in the dark room to perfect one print.
Cinema and theory create the base layer of the ideas behind the works. Johnston is drawn to the past, anything from 1940’s to 1970’s. There is a very strong theme of nostalgia and for Johnston, nostalgia wears a face that turns towards a future past. Whilst growing up in Belfast, she was and still is inspired by books. Gothic novels, short stories, Samuel Becket, Simon de Beauvoir and poetry. A huge movie lover as well, she is a a particular admirer of Hitchcock films, Wim Wenders, French Movies and Italian crime films. All are direct influences in the Strangely Familiar exhibition.
Common objects are strategically aligned and elevated in the mise-en-scène. Each image is a fictional fragment with inexplicable details that are suspended. There are no middles, no beginnings or endings, but a centre point of narratives that are embedded with consumption and desires. The installation of images provides a discourse on the relationship we have with objects. And create an encounter that arises comfortingly familiar scenes but yet stills feels unfamiliar to us.
There is a purity in her work coupled with a touch of the unexpected.
