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Sandra Johnston Sandra Johnston's (.)practice is essentially site-reactive. The processes, which she has evolved since 1992, have consistently explored ideas of active intervention, regarding both the history and present functionality of selected environments. The focus is generally centred on human behaviour, particularly to a sense of territorial ownership and permission of space. Creating situations, which can alter audience¹s perceptions about a place through a quality of observation, bringing forward small or hidden aspects in apparently mundane spaces. Each action is based on improvising with whatever materials and architectural features immediately available on site. The action (to our modern eyes) will be a continuation of THE ROOMS SERIES, an ongoing set of durational works which began in 1998, and of which there are now 21. These works are actions created directly in response to (usually 24 hour) experiences in environments pre selected for the artist by the commissioning organization. Therefore each environment is an unknown entity when the artist enters it, Johnston makes an exploration of that space, identifying through small objects and the marks of habitual usage a forensic like reconstruction of possible events that have occurred there. Sandra Johnston has produced work at an international level since the nineteen eighties and recently represented Northern Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2005. |
