Iona Johnson

studio art // @kkoch.deul

For Never Stamps
My practice uses a variety of traditional drawing and printmaking materials. I work within familiar subjects (figures, plants) and incorporate usual colors (blue, green) to ease the development of experimental physical formats. The characteristic appearance of other mediums—paint strokes or embroidery—are a constant motivation in my mark-making. I am inspired by common objects which have a ton of art-processes behind them. We can use them our whole lives without realizing the design, editing, and labor that went into the appearance and their functionality. That translates into my work by way of incorporating practical objects to lose function, or creating seemingly simple, usable formats which hide intensive processing.

This project is a summary of my technical and theoretical practice: Each stamp collection being drawn with various media, the risograph-printed color variations, the functionality of each stamp as a sticker, and the pages assembled in books. I see the designs as elevated but useless objects, while the reproductions are a functional offshoot that can be used without a thought towards the “making”. The subject matter of philately (stamp collecting) present in the books’ categories is my way of finally being able to answer, “What does your art mean?”. Once I found a place in dealing with books and similar structures, I accepted that what I draw doesn’t have to mean anything, the format can hold a message; Just like how stamp collectors can collect for any reason.