Kat Johnston

Tag: exhibition

  • Sanu/Exhibition: It was a Blur.

    Sanu in Second Life/Kat Johnston: A preview of what you can expect at the “It was a Blur” Exhibition.

    Second Life, as many of you know, has a fantastic potential for artistic expression. It was a Blur is a premiere example of the capabilities of Second Life in this artistic arena.

    Bringing together numerous artists and designers from across the grid, Radio Signals has curated a show which invites viewers to immerse themselves in a truly stunning and visually interesting environment – the likes of which I have never seen in Second Life or anywhere else, for that matter. With a strict texture palette consisting of only two flat colour squares and varying transparency levels allowed, the way objects created interact with the environment and with each other proved both a challenge and a delight.

    The artificial environment is like a pristine blank canvas upon which these 3D objects become flattened – where depth has no meaning beyond an almost ‘theoretical understanding’ of it within the space. You know that if you move your camera around, it is going to show you a different angle of what is most definitely an object with more than two dimensions, but because of the textures used and the structure that surrounds them, they seem to lack the third in a space that seems endless. Only the blurriness and size of objects far away, combined with the people who are traversing the area provides hints of depth. It is quite incredible to feel that the space these objects occupy is both condensed, and yet might continue on forever within the very same instant.

    What also makes this exhibition most interesting is the ability for the viewers to become active participants in the art. Many of the installations were supplied with poses, sounds and animations – built-in methods by which visitors could feel a part of the work. This could also be enhanced by purchasing wearable art and design pieces, which were created specifically to enhance people’s ability to blend with their surrounds and make a statement once back in the ‘real world’ of Second Life. The following are some of the products I created to compliment my installation work. They are now available at It Was a Blur.

    Kat Johnston/Sanu in SL: The gemini skin in pure, which goes perfectly with the Blur Sphere in the same shade.
    Sanu in SL/Kat Johnston: The Gemini skin in the sullied tone, which goes perfectly with the Blur Sphere of the same shade.

    Similar to the environment, I wanted my products to mimic a similar colour scheme and two-sided nature. Thus, these skins come in Pure and Sullied. I want to include a picture of the Spheres here (I created them in both the Pure and Sullied shades also, to blend perfectly with the skins when worn), however my ads for them do include some pixel nudity… so I’d better not, I suppose! The first image in this post does show it off adequately – it is the sphere upon my back!

    I also created three sets of jewelry which I have not surprisingly entitled ‘Blur’ for people to remember the exhibition by.

    Sanu in SL/Kat Johnston: Monocles created to accompany the ‘It was a Blur’ exhibition in the virtual world of Second Life.
    Kat Johnston/Sanu in SL: The earrings set for sale at the Blur exhibition in the virtual world Second Life.
    Kat Johnston/Sanura Sakai: Facial and belly button piercings created to accompany the ‘It was a Blur’ exhibition in the virtual world Second Life.

    You can see some more images I’ve captured of the exhibition wearing two of my own wearable art offerings on my ‘It was a Blur’ set on Flickr.

    You can visit It Was a Blur too, between now and August 16th.

  • Sketch: My heart belongs to Old Spice Guy.

    Kat Johnston Sketch: My heart belongs to Old Spice Guy.

    Ok, I’ll admit it… I still think that it is beyond awesome that my tweet got picked to get a personalized response by the Old Spice Guy on youtube. From the surely thousands of questions that would have been propelled towards the Old Spice team, it feels really great to be one of the ordinary people who got a personal reply. This was my tweet:

    “@OldSpice If Old Spice was originally for the ladies (as Wiki states), are you certain these new scents are quite manly enough?”

    I was informed that Old Spice was originally for the ladies (this is the wiki article I was referring to), but its many very manly side-effects made it more suitable for the menfolk. He even did air-quotes around the ‘as Wiki states’ bit!

    That video has now racked up over 76,000 views. How awesome is that?

    Annnnnyhow, onto other things!

    For those of you who would have picked up the Hootie Set last weekend at Sanu in Second Life, you might recognize the picture today! It is a similar blue heart, and a bit of a sneak peek at a new little product which will be out soon. I’ve been so flat-out with things lately that I haven’t had time to finish them up yet though, so it might take a few days before they’re out. Right this second I am so flat out with real life thingies and the Blur exhibition in Second Life that I just haven’t had time to finalize them yet. Doh!

    That’s all for now, in any case. The Blur exhibition opens up tomorrow, and once I am finished with everything for that, I will be sure to post pictures of my contributions. I’m really exciting to be taking part in it!

  • Sketch: Karl de Waal’s ‘Purge’ at Doggett Street Studio

    Kat Johnston Sketch: another girl, sporting unnaturally huge eyes… one day I will get sick of this look, but it may take a while – I still find them enchanting.

    I’ve been meaning to mention this for a little while now, but I’ve not had the right feeling to sit down and type for a while, nor think deeply enough to form a well-written piece on this. Let’s give it a go, shall we?

    After writing about his piece in the Temperature 2 exhibit at the Museum of Brisbane, Quilt for Melanie, Karl de Waal was kind enough to invite me along to his exhibition opening for Purge, at the Doggett Street Studio. He made the offer tempting indeed even, with the offer of buying me a cold beer! How could I say no to that?

    I actually found it rather surreal. I can tend to be somewhat of a shut-in, finding gallery openings and exhibition events to be somewhat intimidating as I’m surrounded by art enthusiasts and people looking at ‘real art’, while I stand there trying to look as intelligent as my counterparts and not get noticed enough for anyone to ask me a question or start a conversation. One of those ‘better to remain silent and be thought a fool than remove all doubt’ things.

    With my husband firmly in tow, I entered the press of people eagerly moving into the exhibition spaces, voices around me a a low, bubbling eddy of hushed whispers and more enthusiastic greetings among those known to each other. We advanced slowly, enjoying the works of other artists, filling each of the six exhibition spaces, pointing to the ones we liked, discussing how we thought certain things were done and simply marveling at the absolute skill that simply must be required to create some of the pieces.

    For the paintings, our clear and decided favourites were created by Rosalind Edgar, stunningly vivid and vibrant landscapes infused with such rich, beautiful colours. Turning away from the ‘traditional’, pastoral scenes we generally seem to associate with Australian landscape art, these coax the audience into another perspective, into a broad, sweeping view that to me, seems to pick up on the very essence of the land rather than simply a pictorial rendering of ‘what is there’. Trust me when I say that the pictures of the exhibition do little justice to the pieces themselves – you have to go and see them.

    And so we progressed, making our way slowly about the spaces; pausing, returning to those we liked, doing the circuit more than once. We lingered no small amount of time in Karl’s exhibition space, bearing an assortment of sculpture and one painted work which proclaimed a number of sweethearts sentiments quite against any you would find in a regular packet.

    For me, ‘The Hands of Mr Potato Head Save the Innocent’, and ‘Kenny Starburst’ featured as favourites (I will admit, I have an almost unnatural love of type-writers and type-writer keys, not to mention vintage toys…), with a fair few others following close behind. ‘You’ve Got Mail’, I think, was the title of the little critter which sat beside the doorway – though critter he may not have meant to be, that piece exuded so much personality from it I would have bundled it up and stolen it away myself to give it a home with me, feeding it all the letters it desired while it sat upon its sturdy yet almost spindley little 60’s tv cabinet style legs.

    ‘Reflector’ was an instant hit with my husband – the way the pieces seemed to be made for each other, to be fitted together without anything looking out of place or seeming to be altered to slot together so perfectly. As he put it so simply, it was ‘one of those pieces where you know you’d find something new in it every day’, from the way the shadow in the recess would undoubtedly move as the day progressed, to the shapes each crack may form as you looked at it from another angle. I personally love playing that game with myself – seeing what shapes emerge from a tile or splotch of discolouration, noticing a gorilla peeking out at me in one instant, a penguin at another, or perhaps a couple living out a miniature drama with a mix of passion and forlorn desire on the surface of a linoleum square. In this case though, the almost unquenchable desire to touch was hard to quash – give me a wonderful texture and peeling paint, and even the sanctity of art is no match with my want to leave my own little touch upon it for every person after me to see. Luckily, perhaps, I was well behaved and did no such thing.

    And then we met Karl, the hubby pointing and crowing ‘That’s him, bet you anything,’ before sidling closer and urging me to say hello. I don’t exhibit shyness all the time, but speaking to an artist I admire (especially when I’ve already gone all fan-girlie on one of their artworks) does make me want to go ‘uhhhh, I’m sure he has better people to talk to than me…’ What did I come away from the conversation with? A little bit more insight, and a realization that it really is time to update my profile pictures again – my hair is no longer short and pink, but a few inches longer and quite a dark purple!

    Thank you Karl, for the wonderful evening – it was a great pleasure to attend your opening and meet you in person. And for all the rest of you, go ahead and check it out yourself! Karl’s exhibition, Purge, is open until the 16th of May at Doggett Street Studio.

    On an unrelated note… I hate American spell-checks. Colour is spelled with a ‘u’, goddamnit.

  • Sketch: Bunnies… are better than interviews.

    Kat Johnston Sketch: Bunnies… are better than interviews.

    Why oh why am I so unnerved when it comes to interviews for positions that I really want? I start blabbering and babbling, and talking about things unrelated to the question because in reality, although I spent hours thinking over what I should or could say, my brain offers me a big fat blank instead.

    I’m fine in most any situation, but when it comes to an interview… zilch. I turn into a bundle of nervous energy, scrabbling for anything even barely approaching a cohesive response to whatever question has been asked of me. Ah well. Cross your fingers for me – I hear on Friday whether I got the position or not.

    Now, onto something slightly more cheery (still got those fingers crossed for me?) – I popped by to the Museum of Brisbane today to check out the Temperature 2 exhibition. I went to the first Temperature exhibition a few years back, and loved it to bits, so I guess it was time that I got out and saw its successor.

    I have to say that for me, the highlight was Karl de Waal’s piece, ‘Quilt for Melanie’ – a quilt stitched together from discarded notes people had written. I could have spent all morning there reading each and every one of them. I must admit, I was sorely tempted to call some of the phone numbers which were on those scraps of paper, just to say ‘hey, by the way, did you know?’

    I found most of the pieces intriguing in their own way, but that particular artwork was really the one to capture and hold my attention most. Isn’t it funny how a collection of the mundane can transform into something with a power all its own when it is taken into the hands of an artist? Each of those scraps, discarded by their owners once their use was fulfilled, stitched together with so many others entirely elevates them to something above and beyond their original form.

    Little snippets, snatches of people’s lives, like a candid snapshot of a moment which was never intended to be witnessed by anyone other than them – one piece saying ‘don’t forget to bring the tampons’ on what appears to be a shopping list for a trip away, another piece seemingly filled with figures to work out some budget… I like it. Then again, I have rather a fascination for the discarded – what people throw away and toss aside, and then how it is reclaimed through art.

    Ok… that’s all for today. Oh! The picture is another of my bunnies from the bunny sketch-book… he’s cute!