Interdisciplinary artist, performer and winner of Southwark Park Galleries’ 2023 Annual Open moa johansson presents a sculptural conclusion of their project series the five flamboyant [ ] — in which five second hand dresses have been continually repurposed and reconfigured for each iteration, morphing from sculpture through performance to collage, but always subverting their initial association as gendered garments. In multiplying, flamboyantly johansson ultimately dismantles the five garments and in the process of the transformation explores the many possibilities of new becomings.
johansson works primarily in textile and performance in order to consider the body as a material to be stitched, knotted, pinned, folded and rearranged. Their work explores, in subtle and often humorous ways, a ‘textile queering’, through the subversion and reappropriation of fabrics, fixings and garments. There is a deep ethical and ecological sensibility to johansson’s work; by repurposing, recycling and reconfiguring materials found at hand or used previously, they address the politics of consumption, explore new materialisms and see limitations as possibilities.
johansson was selected by Southwark Park Galleries alumni artists Tim Spooner and Florence Peake as the winner of our 39th Annual Open in Autumn 2023 — London’s longest-running truly open and democratic exhibition to encourage artists from any stage of their career to submit work to be part of a large scale salon show.
This exhibition is generously supported by Arts Council England and Breckman & Company.
Events
moa johansson performance activation
Saturday 20 July, 2 – 4pm
Drop in, no booking required
Lake Gallery Salter Space
“what do they hold, memories, what is preserved in the living fibers.”
In this performance activation, moa johansson explores (flamboyant) transformation by using fabric left-over from the project ‘the five flamboyant [ ]’. Drawing from the archive of the project, moa recreates a sculptural tableau of images from the past whilst continuing the exploration of new becomings. In a dialogue between body / material / space, moa explores the material as a (flamboyant) extension of the body, a (flamboyant) disguise of the body and as reconfigured entities, detached from the body.
Biography
moa johansson is a London and Stockholm based interdisciplinary artist, who works with performance and textiles. They have presented work in galleries and performance contexts across the UK and Europe including: Moderna Museet, Sweden (2023); Tramway, Glasgow (2023), Skissernas Museum, Sweden (2023); Slug Gallery, Germany (2022); Cambridge Junction, Cambridge (2022); Röda Sten Konsthall, Sweden (2022); Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham (2019); Supernormal Festival, UK; Humber Street Gallery, Hull (2019) and Summerhall, Edinburgh (2018).
Launch Gallery
