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PIA JOHNSON

Biography

Pia Johnson is a photographer and visual artist, whose practice seeks to investigate issues about cultural difference, diaspora and identity. She also has a strong practice in portrait and performance photography, working with major and independent arts organisations in Australia. 

Pia has exhibited throughout Australia, the USA, China, Japan and Mexico. She has been a finalist in many photography awards, and is regularly invited as a guest speaker and artistic advisor for a range of organisations. Her work is collected in private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria. Recent highlights include solo exhibitions Cusp (2019) at Stockroom, She that came before me (2018) at Manningham Art Gallery, group exhibition All That We Can’t See (2018), her curatorial exhibitions The Family Mantle (2018) and Chinese Whispers and Other Stories (2017), and an artistic residency at National University of Singapore (2018). 

Pia holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Visual arts) and Diploma of Modern Languages (Mandarin) from the University of Melbourne, and is currently a PhD (Art) candidate at RMIT University. 

The Nauru Files, File date 28 September 2014

This series of works were commissioned for the exhibition All We Can’t See: Illustrating the Nauru Files curated by Arielle Gamble. The exhibition depicted individual artistic interpretations of the leaked Nauru files exposed by The Guardian in 2016, illuminating the stark human cost of Australia’s policies of offshore detention.

Untitled series was created in response to the Nauru Files published by The Guardian. My works speak to the file dated 28 September 2014. Reading the files was overwhelming and disheartening, the omnipresent word ‘REDACTED’ – will always grate – these nameless people have had experiences I cannot comprehend. My response is visual, with my body – as I can find no words.

"She reported that she has been asking for a 4 minute shower as opposed to 2 minutes. Her request has been accepted on condition of sexual favours. It is a male security person. She did not state if this has or hasn't occurred. The security officer wants to view a boy or girl having a shower."

The Widening Gyre

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre” 

- The Second Coming, W.B. Yeats

... vortices ... time and space changing ... always ... in-between ... now with another... a child ... from my body, into the world ... a continuous turning ... and returning ... to who I am, who I have been, who I am becoming ... this us ... the symbols and ... rituals of my family ... my culture ... to be ... to be passed on ... like a jewel ... an inheritance ... a legacy ... to stand against a world always pushing inwards ... to make me strong ... to make her strong ... strength ... in the world ... in the suffering of the world ... being responsible for another life ... is daunting ... sometimes ... I close my eyes... surrender to the darkness ...

In a dim light…

The setting is rural Japan in the middle of the night. The 100-year-old house stands nestled between mountains, bamboo, rice paddies and the sea. It is made of wood and filled with tatami mats and screens. Time passes slowly. The weather is changeable and so am I. I cannot sleep. I wander in this liminal space. Displaced in a foreign land. Listless, awake, the edges of self beginning to fray.