Z Johnson

Artist Statement

My name is Z Johnson, I’m an artist and working professional born and raised in Utah. I attended the University of Utah, graduating with a BFA in Intermedia Sculpture and a minor in Gender Studies, which allowed me to cultivate an intersectional approach to art making practices. Having worked with many different mediums, from metal, to ceramic, to textiles, I find that multidisciplinary practices invite nuance and hold a great potential for transcendence.

As a multimedia artist my material explorations typically lean toward textiles, fiber arts, and ceramic. These aforementioned practices are in constant conversation with the environment and community from which the material originates, which is a complexity that I welcome in my work. The tactile nature of these sculpture materials calls to the working of the land that I grew up with here in Utah, physical and direct action with each hand to create a 3D artwork eternally in the context of its founding landscape. Material and matter are subject to the dynamic development of chemical reactions, as textiles are gradually bleached by the sun, leather and hides rot, fibers fray with the interaction of a weaver’s hands, and clay evolves with extreme temperatures.

My practice as I know of it thus far, invites viewer engagement through sensory exploration and tactile connection, as flowers, fruit, clay, fabric, etc. are all familiar materials that carry memory. The potential for vessels to hold narratives of grief is vast, and with the addition of materials that engage with time, physicality, decay, and sorrow, these pieces aim to embody the transformative, multifaceted work of mourning. To focus and give attention to this labor of grief is to participate in the recognition of shared humanity, both of those lost and of those remaining. My aim as an artist is to navigate this landscape of collective trauma, future-building, bodily memory, and radical, hopeful transformation in a way that builds towards intersectional understanding of one another.