lACEY jOHNSON
Matryoshka Transformers & Friends!
As the culminating exhibition of her artist residency at Burb Contemporary, Lacey Johnson imagines transformation taking on matriarchal form via the matryoshka, or “Russian nesting doll”, in Matryoshka Transformers & Friends! Femme-coded, acid-hued imagery and materials power-clash in video installations, paintings, and sculptural elements, all in conversation with ragdolls the artist’s mother crafted in the 1980’s. Each of these works is an iteration, in that it each acts as an incarnation of the other: an ouroboros of material transformations. The matryoshka is the seed of these possibilities; once activated, the metamorphic process can commence. This matrilineal continuum is animated in the video work “The Day We All got Aura Photos”, wherein Johnson has superimposed the faces of her mother’s ragdolls onto her own, merging her mother’s creations. The archetypes they represent in this multidimensional dreamland, illuminate the potential within us all to tap into collective wisdom for the purpose of bodily, cultural, and inter-generational shapeshifting.
To learn more about Lacey Johnson and her work visit:
@lacey.underpants on Instagram
For inquiries regarding the works in Matryoshka Transformers & Friends!, please visit the artist website or email johnsonlacey111@gmail.com
Alternateen - fabric, lace, embroidery, and synthetic wig
Left: Raggedy Ann Fingernails - acrylic, plastic gems, found objects on canvas
Right: Oracles - acrylic, vintage earrings on canvas
Hot Topic Cerberus - acrylic, synthetic hair, found objects on canvas
The Day We All Got Aura Photos - video installation
Matryoshka Monuments & Crone MILF bb Transformers - video installation
