Charlotte Johannesson: Circuit

About

Her work traverses the gendered binaries of weaving and coding, material and virtual, craft and industry, with each assumed polarity becoming a malleable attribute of her practice. Johannesson is foremost known for her pioneering work relating the craft technology of the loom and the digital technology of computer programming. Circuit expands on this dialogue, providing an account of Johannesson’s extensive practice with digitally-conceived textiles and recent paintings alongside plotter prints and digital slideshows. The exhibition explores Johannesson’s continued engagement with symbolism, science, and the human pursuit of innovation.

Circuit features a sequence of digital slideshows created from the Digital Theatre (1978-85) — Scandinavia’s first microcomputer graphics studio established by Johannesson and her partner, Sture Johannesson, in Malmö, Sweden. As a self-organised platform for research and artistic projects, the Digital Theatre has been described as one of the most advanced Apple systems of its time, consisting of seven computers, printers, monitors and synthesisers. The Digital Theatre’s mission was to create ‘micro-performances’ which Johannesson realised through a sequence of digital graphics. In these, Johannesson articulated her own visual compendium, intermixing surrealist symbology with pop cultural iconography, political satire and graphic abstraction.