Author: johannaleech

‘Mayor’s Parlour’, Belfast’s City Hall, UK

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10 December 2021 – 30 June 2022

Curated by Jan Morrow, Emma Campbell and Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell.

The showcase includes work by 2021 Turner Prize winners, Array Collective, as well as an invited selection of artists whose work ranges across disciplines and career stages. These artists and specific artworks reflect Lord Mayor Kate Nicholl’s interest in social justice movements, and illustrate the work she is doing to further diversity and inclusion during her term. The showcase represents Belfast-based artists from a range of backgrounds, including ethnic and cultural minority communities, LGBTQIA individuals, and activists for women’s rights to bodily autonomy. In the Mayor’s words, ‘Belfast, all of it, belongs to each of us, and we should have pride in all its glories’.

Artists: Anushiya Sundaralingam, Array Collective, Ben Malcolmson, Ciaran Harper, Clodagh Lavelle, Dorothy Hunter, Emma Campbell, Factotum, Grace McMurray, Johanna Leech, John Rainey,  Joy Gerrard, Laura Nelson, Marta Dyczkowska, Peter Surginor, Sally O’Dowd, Shiro Masuyama, Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell, Sinéad O’Donnell, Stephen Millar, Thomas Wells, Wee Nuls

Johanna Leech

THINK, screen print, 2019

Johanna Leech is an artist based at Flax Art Studios. Her practice is that of artist-collector. This work references the biggest marketing campaign of all time, by IBM, and the artist collects things associated with it, salvaged from an abandoned IBM complex in New York State. The artist’s father worked for IBM in Belfast. She describes herself as an explorer presenting her discoveries. Her work draws on international folk traditions and her vaguely ethnographic, museological presentation enables viewers to create their own narratives as they are led through unusual rumours, local lore, historic or accurate happenings to moments of collective consciousness.

Wanderlust and Fantastic Oddities

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The exhibition runs from 2nd November 2019 – 21st December 2019.  Solo show at Millennium Court Arts Centre.

Come explore obscure and familiar collections from other lands.  The artist takes you on a road trip through America, and shows you collections objects from Japan, Norway, Iceland, Australia and more.  You can take part by divulging a dream story that could be performed on the night, or by surrendering an unwanted gift in her Re-Gift Amnesty.

Leech’s practice stems from a broad fascination with the world around her. Realised through: drawing; archives; digital imagery; interactive social practice; story; moving image; and installation. These allow the viewer to create their own narratives as they are brought through unusual rumors, local lore, historic or accurate happenings to moments of collective consciousness.
“I see my art practice as an adventure.  I’m an explorer presenting my discoveries. I select and create imagery that draws in the viewer through the familiar and the commonplace.”
The viewer will be presented with an amalgam of installations, minimalist drawing and make-shift collections. Stemming from a lifelong obsession with collecting, the subject matter combines influences from travel, social interactions, history, iconography, myths, legends and museum categorization. These are presented in humorous ways that entice the viewer to decipher connections and explore the multiple narratives set before them.
“She seems to have a knack for finding the bizarre and unique, sometimes under your very nose, in locations you pass by every day. There are moments when her work can make one feel, as Walker Percy would say, “sunk into our own everydayness.” This exchange is perhaps what is most compelling about Leech’s practice; it challenges the unexamined inheritances of our day-to day affairs.”  David Hawkins for Cville newspaper, USA, 2013.

A FREE bus will leave Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast at 6.45pm, and return at 9pm.

To take part in Leech’s dream story survey click here – https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MPLWHX8

A selection of these will be performed on the opening night at 8pm.

Check out her Re-gift Amnesty events at Sustain Market collaborating with Sinéad Bhreathnach-Cashell.  Events on 17th November and 22nd December. https://www.facebook.com/events/406769466703464/

‘The Odd Collection’ exhibition at Pollen Studios

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7th February 2019

Cabinets of Curiosity, also known as ‘wonder rooms’ have displayed collections since at least the 1500’s. They have been used to categorise natural history objects, tell stories about the world and it’s history (sometimes not letting the truth get in the way of a good story) and served to establish a social ranking in society. The Odd Collection exhibition was inspired by the odd collection of favoured objects and the collection of odd objects that find their way into our homes and especially artists studios.

With invited artists, we will convert the Pollen Gallery into a ‘wonder room’, with a nod to the history of museum natural science collections and wink to the possibilities of undiscovered treasures.

Participating artists : Aimee Magee, Aisling Magee, Aisling O’Beirn, Alice Clark, Deirdre McKenna, Jayne Cherry, Jenny Davies, Johanna Leech, Kate Ritchie, Locky Morris, Nathan Crothers, Sharon Adams, SInéad Breathnach Cashell, Zara Lyness.

PS2 – Paragon Studios Cabinet

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PS2Cabinet J.Leech June 201701 – 24 June 2017
Over the upcoming weeks artist Johanna Leech will be showing stories and collections in the PS2 cabinet.  This cabinet will allow you a glimpse into what her practice is, and to show work previously not seen in Belfast.

“I see my art practice as an adventure.  I’m an explorer presenting my discoveries. I select and create imagery that draws in the viewer through the familiar and the commonplace. Stemming from a lifelong obsession with collecting, the subject matter combines influences from travel, social interactions, history, iconography, myths, legends and museum categorization.”

Mourne Mountains
Diary entry, iphone photographs, rocks

Friday 15th July 2016

I’m standing on the rocks at the beach in Annalong, Northern Ireland. It’s one of those ‘not pretty’ stone beaches, stark in comparison to white gleaming sand beaches. It’s windy, making the waves loud, and 8pm so they are returning to the coast. It’s overcast but the wind is warm against my cheeks like a hug or a ghostly hand. I bend down to touch the water in the rock pool, it’s also warm, tempting me to dip my feet in.

The mountains are behind me, The Mourne Mountains (who famously ‘sweep down to the sea’) they are surrounded by menacing black clouds which are moving towards me. I climb on to the large slabs of stone to get closer to the sea. I turn to face the rocks, towards the land. The stone slabs are like layers in a cake slanting away from the water, the waves have cut into them over time. They are covered in scrapes from the smaller stones that have been brushed against them with the force of the waves. I run my finger over their grooves imagining what made them. These rock slabs look like their own landscapes, their own mountains. Dramatic ranges, to subtle slopes. Transporting me to Everest or The Rocky Mountains. I start to photograph them, framing these new landscapes in my view finder. Areas with moss and water become tropical places. Others mirror the Mourne Mountains above them.

The sea is getting closer and I’m drawn to it, turning around. I stand as close as I can to feel its pull, to feel the draw back before the wave crashes in. I stand and watch it for a time, zoning out. I imagine how it would feel for my body to get sucked out with it, strangely peaceful. I want to go for a swim, to float off with it. But I’m stuck here, on the rocks, me and my new mountains. The wind is picking up, but still oddly warm, that moment before a storm, The Mournes have been swallowed by the dark clouds. I’ve only my new mountains at my feet now. So I withdraw out of the mist, back inside.

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PS2 – Paragon Studios – www.pssquared.org

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Artist residency Lapua, Finland

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Jan 2017 – Artist residency at Vanha Paukku kulttuuri- ja yrityskeskus, Lapua, Finland

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I took part in a two week residency in Cultural Centre Vanha Paukku, Lapua in Finland. Vanha Paukku is an arts complex with galleries, a museum, artist residency building with studios, visitors centre, library, artisan shops, cafeteria and a movie theatre. During the two weeks I had a studio in the main residency building.

The Vanha Paukku building was previously The State Cartridge Factory established in 1923, a significant employer and important part of Finnish history. In 1976 an explosion in the loading department took the lives of 40 factory employees, a significant national tragedy for Finland.
Their museum in the complex focused on local histories, their famous tragedy and traditions including wartime Finland. I was able to learn of its communist connections and saw artefacts and interesting imagery and logos associated with it. There was also a shooting range in Vanha Paukku where a local marksman Arvi (who worked in the new Nammo Lapua Ammunition factory) practices. He showed me the Lapua bullets and memorabilia he collected and even taught me to shoot a riffle. He gave me a few bullet shell mementos that have Lapua impressed on them.  I want to use the documentation I took of his office, memorabilia and the Lapua bullets to make some new prints. I have a collection I started in America of old gun prints which I can now develop more with the Lapua bullet collection and imagery. The town’s crest also has very striking imagery of a man with a club riding a polar bear.  I will develop the work back at Seacourt to create new prints.

Double Vision Exhibition

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‘Double Vision’ group show presented symbiotic relationships explored through original printmaking as part of a regional Festival in Finland. The exhibition was hosted by Cultural Centre Vanha Paukku, in Lapua during August 2016. This will be part of a regional festival exploring symbiosis.

Screen print – ‘Killers of Eden’

“In a town called Eden in New South Wales, Australia, an unusual relationship between man and whale took place. The Davidson fishermen worked in partnership with a pod of Killer Whales to collectively bring down larger Baleen Whales. They had adopted this relationship from their Yuin Aboriginal crewmen who taught them of the whales’ behaviour. The Killer Whales (including their leader Old Tom) would signal the fishermen and lead them out to where the pod were holding the whale. The fishermen would harpoon the beast while the killers wore it down and prevented it to move. As the killer whales only ate the tongue, the fishermen returned the next day to remove the body. It was know as ‘The Law Of The Tongue’. This continued for three generations until a beached killer whale was knifed by a vagrant. There is a museum dedicated to the killers of Two Fold Bay in Eden which has the skeleton of Old Tom who had returned to work with the fishermen alone.”

Eden’s Blueprint

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16th May – 24th June 2016. ‘Eden’s Blueprint’, Peroia City Gallery, Arizona, USA
[Toured to Antrim and Belfast International Airport, & Brussels until March 2017]

This partnership project was with Seacourt and Clotworthy House Art Centre in Antrim.  This exhibition of original prints were inspired the historic site of Antrim Castle.   Antrim Castle Gardens are of the most unique and historically intact gardens in the UK and throughout Ireland. The former seat of the Skeffington family, Viscounts Massereene and Ferrard, Antrim Castle occupied its imposing setting on the banks of the Sixmilewater River since 1610. The family began laying out the gardens in the 17th century. While the castle itself was destroyed by fire in 1922 the principal Anglo-Dutch water features of the gardens, though somewhat neglected, have remained largely intact. These unique historic gardens, located close to Antrim town centre, recently underwent a major programme of works to restore many of the key features dating back to the late 17th century. The Heritage Lottery Fund’s recognition of Antrim Castle Garden’s historical significance provided the impetus for Antrim Borough Council to undertake what was the biggest garden restoration project seen in Northern Ireland.

 

Johanna Leech
Title: The Souls of Poor Folk
Technique: archival inkjet
Alexander Irvine was born in Pogue’s Entry in the town of Antrim in 1863. This image is from a photograph in a book containing two of his novels; My Lady Of The Chimney Corner (1913) & The Souls Of Poor Folk (1921). The grounds of Antrim Castle must have played host to a few of the fairy tales he regales in these book.

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Art Vend

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January 2016 ‘Art Vend Project’ Oriel Wrecsam, Wrexham, Wales

Since 1973, Oriel Wrecsam has presented engaging, exciting and sometimes controversial exhibitions to the general public of Wrexham and further afield.

Their first off-site project is Art Vend, which has been developed in partnership with Leeds based Woolgather Art Collective. Oriel Wrecsam has commissioned artists to create miniature artworks, which can now be purchased for £1 each from their town centre Art Vending machine.  The machines will be sited in a wide variety of public places, and moved around regularly as part of Oriel Wrecsam’s mission to make contemporary art accessible to all.

The commissioned artists include students and professional practitioners, working both locally and across the UK. The artworks include limited edition prints, ceramic sculpture, handmade books and USB sticks containing specially created digital work, amongst many others.

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Stories in the capsules are collected from the surrounding areas in Wales:

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In the mid to late 20th century in Chirk, Wrexham.  There was a haunting manifestation in a block of old council flats of several ghostly figures.  Including a woman in a Salvation Army uniform and a blind man with a stick.  It is said that weird white faces peared in through the windows.
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May 2008 at Chirk Castle, Wrexham a photographer claimed to have captured a ghost on film.  He had been experimenting with long shutter speeds on his camera when he caught a semi-transparent female form outside the chapel. He claimed there was no one standing there when he took it. Unfortunately, as long shutter speeds can quite easily make people look semi-transparent, the chances of this being any form of apparition is pretty remote.
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Sometime in the ‘00s a haunting manifestation was reported at Packhorse Bridge in Caergwrle, Wrexham.  A team from the Cheshire Paranormal Society photographed a strange white figure crossing this footbridge late at night during one of their vigils. It is said a total of three spirits haunt the bridge, a young girl and two older women.
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Beddgelert is home to the grave of Wales’s most famous hound owned by the Gwynedd Prince – Llywelyn the Great. The prince ruled Wales over 800 years ago with Gelert the dog at his side.  One afternoon the Prince returned home to find Gelert in his son’s room, covered in blood.  Thinking that the dog had killed his son, the Prince plunged his sword into the hound’s heart. As the dog howled Llywelyn heard a cry of the baby under the toppled cradle, with a dead wolf at its side.  With great remorse the Prince buried his dog outside of the castle walls, the grave can still be seen today.
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The Afanc is a lake monster from Welsh mythology.  Sometimes described as taking the form of a crocodile, giant beaver or dwarf – it is a demonic creature. The afanc is said to attack and devour anyone who entered its waters. Several sites lay claim to its domain, among them Llyn Llion, Llyn Barfog and Llyn-yr-Afanc a lake in Betws-y-Coed.
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When the great king Owain Gwynedd died in 1170 a violent and bloody dispute arose between his 13 children regarding the succession. Madoc and his brother Rhirid decided to leave their homeland and sailed westward. Legend states Madoc found America, the New World. Him and his sailors inter-married with a local Native American tribe, and for years the rumour of Welsh speaking Native American tribes was widely believed.
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Records of an enormous wolf-like animal in North Wales date back to 1790, when a stagecoach travelling between Denbigh and Wrexham was attacked and overturned by an enormous black beast almost as long as the coach horses.  The terrifying animal tore into one of the horses and killed it, while the other horse broke free from its harness and galloped off into the night.  The attack took place just after dusk, with a full blood red moon, “bad moon on the rise” was whispered in travellers’ inns across the region.

In the winter of 1791, a farmer and a blacksmith followed enormous wolf-like tracks across fields.  It led to a scene of mutilation which made the villagers in the area quake with fear that night.  A snow-covered field became soaked with blood – dotted with carcasses of sheep, cattle and a farmer’s dog.  The owner of the farm was found locked up in his house terrified. He had barricaded himself in after witnessing an enormous black animal that resembled a wolf ripping the throat out of his sheepdog.  The farmer said the wolf pounded on the heavy oak door, almost knocking it off its hinges. The weird-looking animal then stood up on its hind legs like a human and looked in through the windows of the farmhouse.
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Vanishing Futures: Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art

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23rd October–5th December 2015 

Vanishing Futures is the twelfth and final instalment of the Golden Thread Gallery’s series of Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art exhibitions that launched in 2005. Having previously invited eleven curators to each share their personal versions of Northern Irish Art History Peter Richards, the series instigator, now shares his.

Through the instalment Richards reflects on: a number of strands of thought around history and mediation; artists and artworks; the moments and things, that have shaped his understanding of Art in the North of Ireland. The exhibition will feature works from the late 1970’s through to the present day and celebrate a sense of world-weary déjà vu.

Including artists such as: Tom Bevan; Charlie Bosanquet; Sinead Breathnach-Cashell; Lorraine Burrell; Lisa Byrne; Ursula Burke; Miriam de Búrca; Ian Charlesworth; Colin Darke; Maurice Doherty; John Duncan; Factotum; Ciara Finnegan; Graham Gingles; Gerry Gleason; Carol Graham; Michael Hanna; Phil Hession; Tony Hill; Allan Hughes; Johanna Leech; Terry Loane; Lisa Malone; Shiro Masuyama; Michael Minnis; Locky Morris; Susan MacWilliam; Connor McFeely; Deirdre McKenna; Mary McIntyre; Moira McIver; William McKeown; Tonya McMullan; Philip Napier; Aisling O’Beirn; Ciaran Ó Dochartaigh; Sinead O’Donnell; Brendan O’Neill; Jack Pakenham; Paul Seawright; Gary Shaw; Dan Shipsides; Theo Sims; Victor Sloan; Peter Spiers; and Una Walker, Alastair Wilson.

Inside the capsules were ‘memories’ of previous work I had created in the Golden Thread gallery. These included: memorable gift stories I had collected from the public during ‘Re-gift Amnesty’, legends and pine needles from the exhibition ‘LEFTOVERS’.

Johanna Leech 1 - Vending Machine
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Johanna Leech 3 - Vending Machine
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Johanna Leech 4 - Capsules in machine
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Johanna Leech 5 - Trees previously in gallery pines used in capsules

Basic Operation project write up

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For Basic Operation, Johanna Leech created work in reaction to Andrew Salomone’s (Wifi Nightlight drawing) and Ben Kinsley’s (Ononharoia story) proposals. At first these two proposals did not seem to connect with each other, but during the project the work started to overlap in the gallery space.

Wifi Nightlight
The wifi routers were gathered from an online callout. Leech drew each one, and played with their composition in the gallery. She worked with artist Robin Price to manipulate the routers to change their light patterns, which was made into a video. Two routers have been completely taken apart and which are now a light piece.
Observations: Are these wifi routers like little creatures in our homes that protect and look over us? Why do people keep them when they are rendered out of date and are worthless? Does having electronic equipment on at night mess with our brains/dreams?

Native American Thrift Store Shrine
This shrine was put together from items Leech had collected whilst in the States in 2013 from her ‘Mini Museum’ collection.  This is in reaction to the Ononharoia piece.

Ononharoia
Through an online questionnaire Leech captured people’s dreams, receiving 25 submissions. They are represented in the space as text pieces and a selection will be performed on the closing event by Julie McCann. The performance changes the audience into a tribe that is taking part in Ononharoia who can guess what dreams McCann is performing.

The Ononharoia (literally, “turning the brain upside down”), referred to as the Feast of Fools by early missionaries, was an annual dream-sharing festival of the Iroquois.(A Native American confederacy inhabiting New York State, originally composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca peoples, known as the Five Nations.) During the Ononharoia, “men and women rushed madly from cabin to cabin, acting out their dreams in charades and demanding the dream be guessed and satisfied”. The dreams shared at the festival expressed some desire and were related in the form of a riddle. Often the community supported the dreamers in fulfilling their dream wishes, although violent, aggressive desires against other members of the community were more frequently acted out in pantomime. Twentieth-century writers have observed that traditional Iroquois dream speculation has much in common with the ideas of Sigmund Freud, particularly the notion that dreams reveal repressed desires that, if not dealt with in some fashion, poison the psyche of the dreamer. From this perspective, the Ononharoia was an occasion for what could be characterized as community psychotherapy.”

Selected to take part in : Basic Operation

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BASIC OPERATION is an experiment in a collaborative process between New York and Belfast based artists, concerned with the creation, value and experience of art.

Initial ideas, concepts, starting points and proposals were firstly gathered from New York, with no restrictions on content, detail or format. The only request was that the submissions must be proposals for as-of-yet unrealised works of art and sent digitally via email.
The suggestions may be from small observations to larger strategies; sketchbook pages, post-it notes, drawings, plans for social events and interventions.

Catalyst Arts will invite a selection of Belfast artists to respond to these original ideas and encouraged to open up, interpret, and misinterpret, the levels of the submitted content.

BASIC OPERATION examines ways of collaboration and authorship. Is it the artist who proposes the initial starting point the author, or the one who furthers and embellishes the idea? Or are they merely a filter? In what form can collaboration take place and, furthermore, must a work of art be unique, or can it be created independently by other artists?

http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/               http://basicoperation.tumblr.com

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Collect some LEFTOVERS & see new work – last week in the gallery

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It’s too late to stop the deforestation of the Project Space but there is still time to collect the LEFTOVERS. Call into the gallery on Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th January 10.30-5.30pm to view new work and claim your FREE winter fuel allowance or protect your garden from frost and slugs!

Thursday 29th January, 12pm – 1pm – FREE Paper Pot Workshop: Join the LEFTOVERS artists for a fun workshop and learn how to up-cycle your old newspapers, with Educational Officer Mary Brady from Belfast City Council’s Waste Management. All welcome, materials provided and no experience needed.

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’24’ exhibition Dec 2014 at Golden Thread Gallery

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24                     4-19th December 2014, Curated by Sarah McAvera

Sinead Bhreathnach- Cashell, Charlotte Bosanquet, Stuart Calvin, Christopher J Campbell, Sheelagh Colclough, Mick Cullen, Leo Devlin, Sarah Faulkner, Ciara Finnegan, Graham Gingles, Gerry Gleason, Deirdre Hawthorne, Johanna Leech, Lisa Malone, Clement McAleer, Colin McGookin, Brain J Morrison, Geoff Molyenx, Hazel Neill, Brendan O’Neill, Robert Peters, Anne Quail, Duncan Ross & Katrina Sheena Smyth

24 aims to capture the excitement of opening an advent calendar: each door a miniature surprise. The twenty-four artists selected are an eclectic mix, not a combination you would necessarily expect. Video, drawing, painting, photography and installation are all represented, with themes ranging from the extraordinary to the minutiae of existence.

My piece ‘Do Not Touch Penguins’, chalk marker on window, Wade pottery whimsie

Flax 25 – Flax Art Studios 25th Anniversary Exhibition & Artist Talk

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Exhibition at Golden Thread Gallery 6th – 27th Nov 2014  [my piece below]

25yrs Flax show in GT Nov 2014 my drawing

In 1989 a group of students graduating from the University of Ulster fine art MA established a studio group and secured premises on the top floor of a 19th century flax spinning mill on the Crumlin Road in Belfast. Flax Art was born.

Twenty-five years on Flax Art Studios, now located in the city centre, is celebrating by looking to the past and planning for the future. The year long programme of events will culminate in an exhibition in the Golden Thread Gallery which will document the early years of Flax Art and the studios relationship with the city of Belfast, the network of international artists who have participated in the international residency programme, and the work of current studio holders. Alongside the exhibition a 25th anniversary publication will be launched.

This exhibition will coincide with a ground breaking symposium on future models for sustainable and affordable studio provision in Belfast to be held on the 6 – 7 of November at the Black Box. A programme of Flax Art Studios based artist led talks will also take place throughout the exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery: –

Talks Programme – Time: 1pm – 2pm

Tuesday 11th November – Alastair MacLennan

Tuesday 18th November – Ryan Moffett

Tuesday 25th November – Barbara Freeman

Thursday 27th November – Johanna Leech

Belfast Open Studios & Artist Show and Tell presentation

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Header-1 My studio in FLAX is open as part of ‘Belfast Open Studios’ ran by Visual Artists Ireland. http://belfastopenstudios.com

“Celebrating it’s 25th Birthday, Flax includes some of Belfast’s most well known artists. Flax Art Studios is committed to developing and strengthening the visual arts sector in Belfast, and has provided 25 years of best practice work at the cutting edge of contemporary art.”

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Johanna flax studio Oct 2014.2

Above photographs of my studio

On Thursday 23rd October I’m giving a ‘Show & Tell’ presentation in the Black Box about my practice. Which was also part of Belfast Festival at Queens. “Quickfire artist talks at the Black Box – Each day at the Black Box we are hosting a lively, fast-paced hour of artists talks. This is a unique opportunity to hear from ten artists talking about their work in this series of revealing ‘Show & Tells’. This free event provides a fascinating insight into the range of work being made by artists today.” Belfast Festival at Queens website listing

Digital Arts Residency

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February to May 2014

Digital Artists Studios – “The residency programme encourages and supports artists in the creation of innovative, challenging and experimental work by providing a creative hub with access to a range of facilities and resources. There are three international residencies and 12 UK & Ireland residencies each year.”

For this residency I wanted to expand my digital conceptual and technical skill to expand upon the ‘Mini Museum’, a project I began in 2013. Through the Mini Museum I take influence from projects abroad and in Belfast, creating collections that are inspired by and represent places I have visited through my own photographs, drawings, and by collecting stories and objects. This had recently focused on an artist residency in USA in Virginia and New York (Sept-Nov 2013) where I created site-specific works and had two solo shows of the Mini Museum series.  The DAS residency gave me the opportunity to enhance and develop the Mini Museum project, which I see as an on-going key element of my practice in the next few years.

Exhibition 5th – 13th June 2014. ‘State Of Play’ at Pollen Studio, Belfast

‘Virginia Is For…’ Exhibition photographs

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The Bridge exhibition images…

Deer
Fox Cafe
Deer and perfume gun
Natural Bridge Collection
Virginia area
hotdogs
State bird Cardinal
Cardinals
Holly’s travel cup collection, places now closed
Harry The Hotdog Story
Harry the hotdog

Images were viewed alongside comments and stories in pencil (which may not be visible in these photographs).  Exhibition contains Leech’s photographs, drawings and collected objects from her 5/6 weeks in Virginia.

Exhibition Saturday 24th Nov 2-5pm

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‘What’s yours is mine, but you don’t know it…’

An Exhibition by Johanna Leech at C H R C H Project Space

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Saturday, November 23rd, 2pm – 5pm

Johanna Leech invites you to vote for your favorite NY collection…

For the past three weeks Belfast-based artist Johanna Leech has been building relationships with local residents, documenting everyday collections, and exploring the unusual side of Ulster County and NY. She has created a mini-museum at CHRCH project space featuring items of local interest. Her exhibit includes a series of photographs, objects, stories and drawings inspired by local places, stories and collections.

Leech’s practice combines influences from travel, social situations, human interactions, iconography, myths, legends and museum categorization. She collects local stories, histories, grandmother’s tales, bedtime stories, hearsay and sagas. She takes photographs, gathers- images, objects, books, icons, scribbles, and objects from the street. These collections can become projections, constructions, installations, photomontages, theatrical/live events and drawings.

https://johannaleech.wordpress.com/

This residency is supported by a grant from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.