My practice is currently going through massive change!
I had been working with print, showing industrial buildings in the way I see them: as beautiful examples of how form is created around function. I showed them in bright colours and very blue skies (my favourite being the column-guided gas-holders).
I have now become very interested in the plastic I find on the beach. Initially, I was only collecting brightly coloured plastic which was shaped funnily, or like cute animals. It started to change when I realised how much there was of string, plastic bags and wet wipes.
Once I began walking with my own bags, I started to pick up all the plastic and related products I could find. I wanted to show, through the photos of my collection, what a responsibility we all share to look after our world.
Initially, I just photographed the pile or piles of what I had found – but I soon realised I could make something more interesting, and highlight the different items which crop up by laying the plastic out in groups of colour and monochrome.
Before moving to East Anglia I used to work with street litter as a print medium (although I didn’t advertise the fact that it was litter!) So my current switch is not so strange: the connection through all my work is in the colour and the local environment.
For more information, visit www.itsclarejohnson.com.
All works are available for sale. To enquire about prices, please click here to contact the artist via the Contact Us page.
