Samantha Johnston

Born: Bangor, N.Ireland, currently in based London.

Education: BA Fine Arts, Belfast Art College, Masters in photography Arts, University of Westminster, London.

Exhibitions: Belfast Exposed, Strangely Familiar, Solo, Belfast, 4th Aug - 24th sept

Project Title: Strangely Familiar

Something triggers our nostalgia. This something can be our own cognitive will or any sensorial stimulus. Through this I create moments. I create from moments felt. Moments triggered from home and abroad, of past and present, of dream and everyday life.

I want to focus on the idea of transition between sequences of images. Human presence is important in my practice which I try to reveal through the existence of objects and the unexplainable feelings we associate with them, sometimes nostalgia or sometimes a sense of displacement. Through these feelings I try and create another time, separate to the modern time we live in, invoked by a yearning to step into a world created from our internal sensorial stimulus and daydreams.

My work is not one specific project but an exploration into the creation of constructed sets, combining familiar objects and interior settings within the strange and bizarre, and illustrating an absence of the present. By showing fragments of scenes that are part of our collective cultural memory and referencing elements that introduce a visceral unease. In reacting to our digital reality, I balance the craftswoman with the artist, roaming for props, staging my scenes, shooting on film and printing distinctive colours by hand in the darkroom.

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