Canadian artist Sarah Anne Johnson completed her
MFA at Yale in 2004 with a thesis project entitled Tree Planting. This
ambitious installation formed a record of her summers spent in northern Canada
engaged in the collective activity of reforesting as a way of earning money
and having a communal experience. For her art, she combined straight photographs
with photographs recording "tableaux" made from little sculptural figures
set in the landscape (formed from the craft product Sculpee). She created
these vignettes to extend the images beyond just what she was able to record
to what she remembered both visually and emotionally. Johnson conceived of
the show project as an installation, forming a large narrative displayed on
curved walls.
In her second extended project based on ecological volunteer tourism in the Galapagos Islands (financed partially by a grant from Yale) she continues the themes of idealism and nature, and has expanded the mediums in which she works to include sculpture and painting. The Galapapos Project was shown at the Winnipeg non-profit space "Plug-In" during the summer of 2006 and in an expanded version at the gallery during winter 2007.
Johnson's third exhibition and project entitled House on Fire is being shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario during the summer of 2009 followed by its presentation at the gallery. She has shifted from ecological and public minded projects to the exploration of family demons and her mediums has shifted to bronze from Sculpee and the creation of unique painted photographs. The project was funded by the Grange Prize, a prestigious Canadian grant she was awarded in 2008.
In her second extended project based on ecological volunteer tourism in the Galapagos Islands (financed partially by a grant from Yale) she continues the themes of idealism and nature, and has expanded the mediums in which she works to include sculpture and painting. The Galapapos Project was shown at the Winnipeg non-profit space "Plug-In" during the summer of 2006 and in an expanded version at the gallery during winter 2007.
Johnson's third exhibition and project entitled House on Fire is being shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario during the summer of 2009 followed by its presentation at the gallery. She has shifted from ecological and public minded projects to the exploration of family demons and her mediums has shifted to bronze from Sculpee and the creation of unique painted photographs. The project was funded by the Grange Prize, a prestigious Canadian grant she was awarded in 2008.
House on Fire, sculpture 2008 [view
images]
House on Fire, editioned prints 2008 [view
images]
In the Forest 2006 [view
images]
The Galapagos Project 2005 [view
images]
Tree Planting 2002-2005 [view
images]