Follower, Leader presents paintings and prints created while Naarm/Melbourne-based artist Helen Johnson trained as an art therapist, allowing her to focus on metaphysical conceptions of bodies, drawing from dreams and intuitively generated imagery. Shaped by her experiences of motherhood, alongside therapeutic conceptions of care and connection, Follower, Leader resonates with the maternal principles of ngaangk – of creation, beginnings, and re-beginnings. Often free-hanging and double-sided, her unstretched canvases invite viewers to move between the paintings, to linger and dwell on shifting impressions as they emerge from the surface.
Helen Johnson, The Actual, 2022, synthetic polymer paint and pencil on canvas. Courtesy the artist and Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA), Western Australia
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA)
9 February to 31 March 2024
Western Australia
