INVALID
August 19, 2021 to February 18, 2022
As part of In Keeping With Myself, group exhibition, Portrait Gallery of Canada, online exhibition
Curated by Darren Pottie
On March 15, 2020, my city was placed under lockdown, and on that day, I received a phone call informing me that I likely had an untreatable chronic disease. These images were made in response to navigating a new diagnosis of celiac disease as well as the terrifying banality of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each image has been captured using a digital camera from the early 2000s, each image itself skewed, pixelated and damaged. These images represent a holistic approach to healing, a visual response to moments of difficulty or moments of joy.
In Keeping with Myself features works by 19 contemporary Indigenous and Canadian artists who use self-portraiture as a means of reconciling deeply personal challenges and creating a path towards healing. Each artist explores the internal self and the physical self, within the context and constraints of the world around us. The resulting artworks create spaces for the artists to fully enact themselves, presenting their meditations to us, the viewers.
Self-portraiture can come from a wide range of media — from digital and film photography to installation, projection, collage, mixed media, beadwork, sculpture, 3D renderings, textiles, journal entries, interviews and collaborations. The extensive range of media and topics covered in these artworks makes it easier for us to visit the artists’ spaces and to build our own networks of self-reflexivity towards a path of healing.
“Johnston has crafted her Invalid series as a virtual installation to explore her life struggles within visible and barely visible chronic illnesses. Each image has been captured using a digital camera from the early 2000s, as a means of showing the skewed vision of someone who is constantly struggling against the limits of their mind and body. The series serves to document the meandering path of chronic mental and physical illnesses. These images represent a holistic approach to healing, a visual response to moments of difficulty or moments of joy. With these images, Johnston asks herself and her viewers: What constitutes the self, if mind and body are in turmoil? If mind and body are in turmoil, where can a safe space be found?” - Darren Pottie, curator of In Keeping With Myself at the Portrait Gallery of Canada, 2021