Rupture / capture
archived
16 Mar
–
9 Apr
2016
Johanna Mechen
Enjoy is pleased to present a new installation by Johanna Mechen, our 2016 Summer Artist in Residence.
Beginning with a quest to video her vitreous eye floaters, Mechen explores the relationship between Optometry and Photography, weaving historical and contemporary elements of both practices with factual and fictitious discoveries.
These two lens based practices, components seeded with the invention of Galileo's telescope, look in opposite directions. Photography, Weston's “one searching eye”, looks out and captures, while optometry looks inward to a different set of constellations, one with its own science and subjectivity.
Mechen enlisted the help of optometrists, ophthalmologists and collectors of objects, and presents a figurative, poetic and intuitive interpretation of this research. This hybrid imagery attempts to whimsically “see inside the eye, with that same eye”, while being weighed and measured against the accuracy of health professionals.
Exhibition Essay
The end to that eye
By Marcus Moore
Read Online
Johanna Mechen, Rupture/capture, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Johanna Mechen, Rupture/capture, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Johanna Mechen, Rupture/capture, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
Johanna Mechen, Rupture/capture, 2016. Image courtesy of the artist.
About the artist
Johanna has recently completed a Master of Fine Art program at Massey University Wellington. Her greater practice is experimental and has included exhibiting, curating, writing and teaching photography. Her work has included still and moving image and has been shown at the CSA Gallery Christchurch, Mahara Gallery Waikanae and The Dowse Art Museum Wellington. She lives in the Hutt Valley with her partner and two daughters.