Through it

A solo exhibition by Mandy Johnston

Long Gallery: 15.10.26 - 26.11.26

Through it is an expression of the divided human experience, exploring and mapping the way we exist simultaneously as physical weights and conceptual beings. I see my work as a conversation starter. The process of making allows me to work through my thoughts and to have conversations around questions or observations I have about society. The transitions we go through in life are my current focus.

In recent years, I have observed a steady decline in traditional rites of passage. Although shifts are essential in healthy cultural contexts, their demise means a loss of communal ways in which we support each other and the opportunity for ancestral knowledge to be passed down.  

In “As above”, a pool of water and its surface act as both a mirror and a void, creating fluid reflections on the water’s surface. It catches the fragments of light passing through it and reflects the figure on the surface itself. If the air shifts, the water ripples, and the projections stir. The static figure becomes a dynamic narrative of movement, reflecting how every move on the surface leads to an indelible imprint in the depths below.

As light pierces the mesh, it projects an enlarged, distorted silhouette onto the gallery wall. This shadow, seemingly more solid than the steel itself, maps the unseen architecture of internal journey. It transforms the solid wall into an atmospheric landscape where the figure shifts position and, in doing so, shifts the interpretation of its physical position and possible mood. 

Fire, as an experiential element, is a commentary on the rites of passage. It is my intention through this work to have conversations about how we can better envision ways of supporting each other through life’s transitions and transformations.