Fingers of the Noose: Imaging Injustice

Presenter: Professor Andrew Ellis Johnson, Associate Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University

Presentation Details:
Abstract: Through image and form across a variety of media, tactics and disciplines, artist Andrew Johnson explores social and political injustices, wrestling with the trappings of distinguishing between aesthetic, political and moral orders. He treats and presents representation - not as a hermetic mimetic pictorial tradition - but as an agency to awaken and combat torpor. Invoking both the physical properties and social histories of materials, he builds on and transforms their meaning, often arriving at the antithesis of signs - yielding works made not to be read, but to arrest. With bleak humor, he engages with representation as a challenging and damaging necessity, a channeling of power, a tool, a force.

Bio: Johnson's work has appeared in galleries, electronic and video festivals, public collaborations, conferences, books and journals in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. As co-founder of the collective, PED, he has performed in Buffalo, Belfast, Chongqing, Rio de Janeiro, St. John's and Tonawanda. Johnson studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA) and Carnegie Mellon University (MFA) in Pittsburgh USA, where he is Associate Professor of Art. Recent residencies and exchange projects include those at Korean National University of the Arts in Seoul, University of the Arts London at Camberwell, Fayoum International Art Center in Egypt, and Sites of Passage in Jerusalem/Ramallah/Pittsburgh.

All interested faculty, graduate students, and other parties are invited. Refreshments will be served.

For inquiries concerning CIQR, please contact the Center Coordinator, Fred Evans, Dept. of Philosophy, at evansf@duq.edu, 396-6507, or visit the CIQR website at www.duq.edu/ciqr.