THIS LIFELESS BOX MAY BE FULL OF ENERGY
GARRY ARTHUR, CHRISTCHURCH PRESS, 13 AUG. 1981
Paul Johns
December 5, 2001 - January 2002
Based in Christchurch, Paul Johns' distinctive title plays
on a review in the Press Newspaper of an earlier work by the artist,
a 1981 showing at the Robert McDougal Art Gallery in Christchurch.
That work, a collaboration between Johns and Nicholas Register,
drew on theories by 1930's psychiatrist Wilhelm Reich, who clamed
to have discovered orgone energy, a cosmic force pervading the atmosphere
and charging the cells of all living things, and which could be
trapped and channeled through the creation of constructions called
Orgone Accumulators. Reich's difficult placing (and apparently even
more difficult personality) in the canons of science and psychoanalysis,
and his experiments with radioactive material, led ultimately to
his research being banned for years in America and his eventual
incarceration in a Federal Penitentiary, but his ideas continue
to be revisited by new generations of scientists, theorists, and
new-age believers.
John's experiments in creating his own Accumulators contain sensitivity
and a willingness to explore Reich's ideas, open to the possibilities
for change posited by the ogone, yet underscored by a characteristic
sense of play in his approach. Elegant and formal in execution,
this work can been seen in relation to a larger body of work by
the artist which is critical, complex, and often subversive in attitude.
An ongoing project for Johns which was interrupted by years of ill
health and revisited again for this and further upcoming shows,
and an air of intimacy can be sensed in this work, a personal touch
which speaks of familiarity and history.
Reviews & EssaysThis lifeless box may be
full of energy Garry Arthur, Christchurch Press, 13 Aug. 1981 - Paul
Johns
Essay by Rosemary Forde
in The Physics
Room Annual 2001
ISBN 0-9582359-1-0
|