Johnson R. Hunt

Works here were created during the Covid-19 pandemic March 2020-Present. 

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I don’t have my own children, but I have found myself thinking about them a lot time lately. I think about how they perceive time so differently than us. They have experienced so little time in their short lives that a single moment becomes expansive to them. This quarantine, this crisis, is so much time in their little lives. 

 

I think a lot about the child refugees the Australian government dumped on the island of Nauru. Children who spent their childhoods only seeing rocks, fences, and sky; while our children see screens, sickness and violence. I think about how post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic withdrawal syndrome, depression and suicidal thoughts will be imprinted on them for the remainder of their lives. 

 

And I wonder, Is This Our Nauru?

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Works here have shifted have shifted from my pre-pandemic practice. Considering myself a three dimensional artist, those mediums no longer feel authentic. I have the privilege, luxury, and guilt of being in a remote and beautiful place at this time. Feeling so far removed, performance, time-based media and self-portraiture are all that feel authentic to me in this moment. As healthcare workers and protestors put their bodies on the front lines, I feel compelled to use my body in these works.

 

*Beginning in the end of June 2020, I was asked to instruct an online sculpture and material exploration course. This was initially complicated because of the nature of stay at home orders and the inability to require specific materials. This has lead me to a place where I am beginning to make object-based work again using household and found materials.