|
Jess Johnson and Jordan Marani have been exhibiting as a duo intermittently over four years. Says Johnson, “We don’t actively collaborate on making artwork together; rather we have individual art practices that share the same playground (punch-ups, broken sporting equipment and schoolyard taunts included).” In the real world they are the co-directors of Hell gallery. Their living space and studios are on the same compound. Naturally their work has come to share domestic links, reference points in popular culture and a similar aesthetic weave
They tend to peruse the same locations when searching for source materials and ideas. Both lean towards a DIY inventory, incorporating salvaged goods and household detritus in their artwork. They share a fascination for the visual imagery of B grade horror, comic books, falling towers, black holes, post apocalyptic fiction, weird science and doom metal. On a more domestic level it can contain text expounding on the immediate frustrations of rent payment, talkback radio, disintegrating relationships, skirmishes with addictions and supermarket shopping.
During their residency at GCAD from 11-17 May, the artists will begin to create an exhibition for the Centre’s Switchback Gallery. On show from August 5 to September 3, it will incorporate installation, sculpture, drawing, collage and soundtrack. They predict a ‘polyglottal simmering of words, images, shared memories, fantasies, associations and neurosis.’
Jess Johnson was born in 1979 in Tauranga, New Zealand. She is an artist, curator and writer. Her drawings recently featured in I walk the line: New Australian Drawing at the MCA (Sydney).
Jordan Marani was born in 1965 and lives and works in Melbourne. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting), at Victoria College, Prahran in 1990 and was a studio artist at 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne in 1991-2.
The artists’ recent exhibitions together include Who Cut The Cheese? Two Giants of Contemporary Art Talk Frankly of Monumental Tasks, Seventh Gallery, Melbourne, 2009; Hellraiser: The Director’s Cut, Hell Gallery, Melbourne, 2008 and This Is Not A Love Schlong, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2007. Their most recent art project is a Melbourne gallery called Hell. www.hellgallery.blogspot.com
|
|
|
