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Time is Always New
Megan Baker & Eleanor Johnson, 3 October - 16 November 2024

Time is Always New: Megan Baker & Eleanor Johnson

Past exhibition
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  • Works
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Overview
Like Rivers Flow, Time too Slips By, 2024 by Megan Baker
Like Rivers Flow, Time too Slips By, 2024 by Megan Baker
In 'Time is Always New', Megan Baker and Eleanor Johnson explore Ovid's 'Metamorphoses', a latin narrative poem that chronicles a vast array of myths and legends, primarily focusing on the theme of transformation or 'metamorphosis'.

In the show, the two artists explore Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'  through distinct approaches. And yet, both examine the deep connection between nature and transformation. While Johnson's work delves into duality and change, merging bodies with flora and fauna in dreamlike forms, Baker focuses on the cyclical nature of time, using paint to capture moments of transformation and renewal. Together, these artists offer a compelling meditation on the ever-shifting essence of existence, inviting viewers to engage with transformation not only as a mythic concept, but as a fundamental and continuous force that shapes both the natural world and the human experience.

 

Johnson draws inspiration from Ovid's myths rather than retelling them, using the theme of metamorphosis as an expedient to explore timeless and enduring dichotomies - sex and death, shadows and light, dark humour. Johnson captures a beautiful darkness, a magical otherworldliness, emanating a sense of wonder and enchantment. In doing so, the artist looks at the idea of discomfort - sometimes even absurdity - embedded in the distortion of the body, constantly reshaped through movement and evolution. Johnson depicts bodies merging and emerging, transforming into the nature - flowers, feathers, animals - that surrounds them. In this body of work, and in her practice as a whole, Johnson evokes the feeling of a lingering, elusive dream, a sensation that is inherent to the poem itself and one that has always captivated the artist due to her fascination with the dreamworld.

 

Still with a focus on change and the close tie between humans and nature, Baker explores such a concept through a temporal lens, a trademark of the artist's production. "Through this body of work I am considering the cyclical processes of time mirrored through nature, the transformative landscape and the impermanence of being. Taking inspiration from the myths presented in Ovid's poem, I aim to stretch out these moments of transformation through the temporal qualities of paint; where painting allows me to linger, and the paint slips into its own form of renewal." (Megan Baker). For Baker, in a world shaped by the immediate overconsumption of imagery, painting offers a means to transform and elongate the act of seeing. Rather than compressing moments into static forms, painting allows them to evolve.

  • Access the Catalogue
Works
  • Eleanor Johnson, Falling, Floating, 2024
    Eleanor Johnson, Falling, Floating, 2024
  • Eleanor Johnson, Sinking, Soaring, 2024
    Eleanor Johnson, Sinking, Soaring, 2024
  • Eleanor Johnson, One Hundred Tiny Eyes, 2024
    Eleanor Johnson, One Hundred Tiny Eyes, 2024
  • Megan Baker, Fled Across the Wilds III, 2024
    Megan Baker, Fled Across the Wilds III, 2024
  • Megan Baker, In the Swell of Spring II, 2024
    Megan Baker, In the Swell of Spring II, 2024
  • Megan Baker, Lost in an Echo, 2024
    Megan Baker, Lost in an Echo, 2024
Installation Views
  • This Is Always New Install 01
  • This Is Always New Install 02
  • This Is Always New Install 04 1
  • This Is Always New Install 05 1
Press
  • Megan Baker and Eleanor Johnson, 'Time is Always New' Installation View

    5 Must See Exhibitions for Fall | Shows to Discover During the Colder Months

    VOLTA, October 10, 2024

Related artists

  • Megan Baker

    Megan Baker

  • Eleanor Johnson

    Eleanor Johnson

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Gillian Jason Gallery

19 Great Titchfield Street, London, W1W 8AZ

+44 (0) 207 323 1714

info@gillianjason.com

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