* WHO IS REALLY FROM HERE, ANYWAY? *
> karin johansson >
I moved here in 1995. At first, everyone I met said they were from somewhere else. Who was from Los Angeles? People from over 160 countries, speaking 96 different languages live here in our sprawling city. So it is not so strange that everyone is from somewhere else. Yet in another sense, one can say that we are all from here – a diverse city of individuals working, living, growing together. In time, I understood that the grown environment of Los Angeles, the abundant plants and trees and flowers, reflected this paradigm as well. The plants in the city are so integrated in to the cityscape that I took for granted that they were ‘Californian,’ but upon closer inspection realized that almost all of them come from somewhere else too.
I myself grew up in Sweden, in a small town, Vanersborg. The landscape, specific trees and plants, formed the environment that formed me. Looking at birch trees will always make me feel a certain way.
The photos are meditative windows on the grown environment of Los Angeles – one that happens to be, like our city’s population, from all over the world. Whether this botanical diversity is good or bad is not the point of the work. The goal behind this project is to find out how the diversity of the population is reflected in the nature of Los Angeles. I hope that the viewer will be awakened to the diverse beauty of LA’s urban world, think about where both they themselves and the plants come from, and what this says about our city.
In these photographs, I wanted to make images that would give the viewer a feeling of recognition, a space to escape and dream and be reminded of the past, or to experience the everyday beauty of what has become the nature of this city.
These are C-type photographic prints and depending on space they can be from 50"X60" to 11"X14". I will also present text with information about the different plants and how/when they got introduced in to the California landscape.
Slide
list
1. Sweetshade, native to Australia, 2 Freeway. 2003.
(Tall tree with Orange flowers common around Freeways).
2. Bougainvillea, native to South America, Third Street. 2003.
(Street divider with pink Bougainvillea on Third street).
3. Fig tree, native to the Middle East, Pot Marigold, native to Europe,
Edendale. 2003.
(Fig tree with wild grass, weed and Orange Pot Marigold on vacant lot).
4. Ever Red, native to Japan, North Baldwin Avenue. 2003.
(Red Maple tree and waterfall at The Arboretum of LA County).
5. Golden Trumpet Tree, native to Brazil, Descano Drive. 2003.
(Tree with Yellow flowers, on the parkinglot at Descano Drive)
6. Oleander, native to Jamaica, Yellow Bells, native to Texas, 10 Freeway. 2003.
(Pink Oleande brought to America in 1841, Yello Bells native to Texas and Tropical
America).
7. Liquid Amber, native to California, 4th Street. 2003.
(Maple Trees planted outside the Downtown YMCA).
> bio >
Education
1997
MFA California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA.
1994 BFA School of Film and Photography, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Selected Exhibitions
2003
Portraiture: Reflection, Identity and Presence, SAC Arts, Santa Ana, CA.
Performance in Gothenburg, Gothenburg Sweden.
2002 Rent-A-Bench, LA, CA.
Fritt Forum Festival, Heden, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Song Poems, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, LA, CA .
Song Poems, Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX.
Group show, I5 Gallery, The Brewery, LA, CA.
2001 Adjustable truths, Massar Gallery, Pasadena, CA.
Song Poems,Cohan Leslie and Browne, New York, NY.
Kvällskurserna/Aftenskolen , Galleri Signal.Malmö, Sweden.
2000 Red&Green&Blue, Artist space, New York,NY.
Dalsland, Dalboparken, Vanersborg, Sweden.
1999 Palletten, Galleri Palletten, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Gilbert&George, 1970 Bronson Ave, Los Angeles, CA.
Installation performance film video, Actionspace, Los Angeles, CA.
Projections: Intermission Images V, Lammeles Grand Fourplex Theaters, LA, CA.
1998 Annuale 1998, LACE, LA, CA.
Other related areas, Gallery at U C I, Irvine, CA.
In the name of the Place, Grand Arts , Kansas City, MI.
Cashbox, Galleri Box, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Please stay very still and press your knees together, youth & anti-youth,
Brooklyn, NY.
The Hunter and the Hunted, Galleri Generator, Gothenburg, Sweden
1997 Hollywood Premiere, Hollywood premier Motel, LA, CA.
Attache, Gemini G.E.L, LA, CA.
Green, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA.
Uncommon Sense,The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, LA, CA.
Bienal 1997, Kwanj Jo, Korea.
Funny Loss, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA
Future, part I , California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA.
Grants
Swedish
Art Grant Foundation- 99
Scandinavian-American Foundation-97
Swedish Art Grant Foundation-96