twenty+3 projects is pleased to present for the next exhibition, Mustard and Ketchup by Canadian artist Michelle Johnson.
Johnson’s work engages with life’s precariousness and the failure to contain. In her exhibition at twenty+3 projects, she enters the realm of fast food and the environment.
Mustard and Ketchup brings silicone objects of ‘melted’ Ronald Macdonald’s into the gallery space. They sit in Petri dishes on a shelf as though multiplying. They tumble and fall down the walls and windows and ooze from an unknown source in the room into a large dark reflective pool on the floor. Flood 2007 is a framed digital print of a landscape submerged in water.
Johnson’s manipulations of Ronald Macdonald function as a jester might, poking fun but exposing something much more sinister. While the work is playful and mischievous it also evokes grief, loss of control, and incontinence. “Mustard and Ketchup is childhood delight brought to the brink of disaster.” says Johnson,” Ronald tumbles and dissolves into a puddle. And as for the mess… there is no one to blame and no one to clean it up.”
Michelle Johnson has exhibited in numerous Canadian galleries. Mustard and Ketchup is her first UK solo exhibition.
