Helen Johnson
Filling holes with words, 2023
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
222 x 169 cm
87 3/8 x 66 1/2 in
87 3/8 x 66 1/2 in
Further images
'This feels like a time to engage with our bodies, not as idealizable forms but as abject actualities that inhabit a metaphysical as well as a physical plane, that are...
'This feels like a time to engage with our bodies, not as idealizable forms but as abject actualities that inhabit a metaphysical as well as a physical plane, that are affected by language in a real sense. This is still our world.
I had a moment earlier this year when I became unable to access my mind’s eye. In its place was a screen-image filled with holes. This is a scene of language trying to fill the holes, stop the gaps; in Colette Soler’s words, “through a resurgence of belief, [the analysand at the end of analysis] may opt for the seduction of the hole and the words that can colonise it” (Colette Soler, Lacanian Affects, pp. 166-167). This is ultimately a futile task. This is an alien sort of language derived from Lacanian theory, but it is the only way I can talk about this work. Words are not really enough; it’s a work best encountered on a visceral level that does not become bound up in the scene itself, of filling holes with words.'
- Helen Johnson, October 2023
I had a moment earlier this year when I became unable to access my mind’s eye. In its place was a screen-image filled with holes. This is a scene of language trying to fill the holes, stop the gaps; in Colette Soler’s words, “through a resurgence of belief, [the analysand at the end of analysis] may opt for the seduction of the hole and the words that can colonise it” (Colette Soler, Lacanian Affects, pp. 166-167). This is ultimately a futile task. This is an alien sort of language derived from Lacanian theory, but it is the only way I can talk about this work. Words are not really enough; it’s a work best encountered on a visceral level that does not become bound up in the scene itself, of filling holes with words.'
- Helen Johnson, October 2023