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Heather L. Johnson .
Erasure
Exhibition Dates: November 11–December 12,
2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, November 11,
7–9pm
Online
Catalogue
CHRISTINA RAY is pleased to present Erasure, an
exhibition of new work by Heather L. Johnson. In an
installation of embroideries, watercolors and a text-based wall drawing, Johnson
revisits a poignant moment in the history of late nineteenth-century Hudson
County, New Jersey, where long-forgotten insane asylums and penitentiaries once
existed amidst violence and political
corruption.
Heather L. Johnson's seemingly quiet installations, upon closer inspection,
often take the viewer by surprise. Messages woven into white linen fabric as
words in white thread appear almost as whispers. Faint outlines of buildings
that have long since crumbled remind us of the fragile and temporary nature of
our existence. News headlines of the time, pulled out of context and stitched
into the embroideries – "31st Typhoid Case at Mental Hospital, "
"Man Succumbs Under Shower at Mental Diseases Hospital" – remind
us that spaces and the people who lived and died in them are
inseparable.
Uncovering the complicated history of institutions and asylums that once
existed here, the artist revives some of what was lost as she questions our
tendency, in American culture, to tear down the inefficient, inconvenient or
painful parts of our
past.
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CHRISTINA RAY is an innovative gallery and creative catalyst in New York whose
mission, grounded by the concept of psychogeography, is to discover and present the most important
contemporary artwork exploring the relationship between people and
places.
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