Annie Johns





‘Making makes, say, boxes and the boxes may be good to look at, but making always matters: so, if anything is to be made to last, it might as well be the making as the box’ *




I make installations containing repetitive formal devices, often using fragile materials (wax, fuse wire, kapok, paper bags, gold leaf, balsa wood, aluminium sheet, ash, hemp). It is important that the work is task orientated and time consuming; associated with repetition of labour, the manipulation of the onlooker’s viewpoint and difficulty of expression through language. I am not usually concerned with the application of colour to a surface, only that which is integral to the chosen materials. Drawings through a magnifying glass are beginning to be used and added to installations to document the process of making.


* David Sylvester talking about Robert Morris' piece 'Box with the sound of its own making' 1971

Recycling Language. Wood, zinc, capillary, tubes, pump, water. h244cm x w76cm

Splice, Flax floor piece, 140cm x 140cm, £1550