Antireality perversion void

Janet Beckhouse, Emily Hunt, Rose Salmon, Nichola Shanley, Laurie Steer and Nathan Taare.

Building upon her own transdisciplinary art practice, Jess Johnson has curated a collection of ceramic objects by makers who work from the underbelly of contemporary ceramics, where the gothic, punk, macabre, mythological, and magical prevail.

Presented in an immersive space designed by Johnson in homage to the horror anthologies and science-fiction omnibuses she grew up reading, Antireality perversion void marks an intersection (or portal, or wormhole) between world building and clay working, asking how the ceramic object or vessel might be a container for entire alternate realities and speculative futures.

Artists Janet Beckhouse, Emily Hunt, Rose Salmon, Nichola Shanley, and Laurie Steer each approach this question through their unique perspectives and styles, yet each creates works as immersive, imaginative, and playfully anarchic as the environment Johnson has created to house them.

For this iteration at City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, Johnson is collaborating with OF BODY’s Nathan Taare to introduce a scented dimension to the exhibition. Its predominant bases are Civet Synthetic, an imitation of the tropical feline’s musk and Coumarin, a bittersweet compound diffused by some plants as a defence mechanism.

Developed and toured by Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery > https://www.teuru.org.nz/

IMAGE Antireality perversion void, 2021. Installation view, Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery. Image: Sam Hartnett.
IMAGE Jess Johnson Antireality perversion void, 2021. Courtesy the artist.