Liz Johnson-Artur discusses her expansive archive and current solo show at Foam Amsterdam
Liz Johnson Artur’s expansive back catalogue of personal photography, what’s known as her Black Balloon Archive, has been ever-growing for over 30 years. This highly respected, south London-based artist first picked up a camera in 1985, aged 21, and since then has thrived on getting in amongst the people to capture every day moments, whether that’s in a nightclub, at a carnival, in a church, on the street or any other place. This priceless documentation and representation of global Black diasporic communities long went largely unseen. Meantime Artur became, and remains, much sought after for her editorial work for titles such as i-D, The Face, The Fader and Nataal. In recent months she’s shot Marcus Rashford for Dazed, Michaela Coal for Garage and FKA Twigs for T Magazine.
It wasn’t until she published her first monograph in 2016, which was included in The New York Times’ Best Photo Books list of that year, that this wealth of material began to come fully to light. Since then, she’s increasingly exhibited the work and with each show, she’s allowed herself to encounter the archive in new and personal ways, making connections and fusing moods that are not necessarily chronological or geographical but allows the images speak to each other, as well as the viewer, in organic ways.
Artur enjoyed a solo show at South London Gallery in 2019 and created a photographic installation for Grace Wales Bonner’s Serpentine show in the same year. In 2021 she was the recipient of the Women In Motion Award, which was presented at the Recontres d’Arles, and published Valentino (Rizzoli) with author Bernadine Evaristo. She also has works included in the Tate Modern’s current exhibition, Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s – Now.
“I like to occupy space... so I see every exhibition as a starting point to expand the archive”
“I like to occupy space so I see every exhibition as a chance to go through my archive, and more importantly to use it as a starting point to expand the ‘Archive’,” the artist tells us of her curatorial approach. “To occupy space for me means to not come alone. One of my approaches to choosing and showing always considers how the work can be activated, whether through poetry, music or performance.”
Her latest solo ‘Of life of sex of love of movement of hope’ at Foam Amsterdam takes her installation approach into refreshing realms. Using a variety of materials and types of hangs, she creates an immersive and textural display that invites the visitor to explore and discover the work as their heart guides them. “The first room is activated through each visitor. To see the work, one has to move around the room and depending on your movement, people can experience the photographs through their own choice of movement. It’s what I do when I take photographs - I move around to see people.”
This use of materiality nods to how Artur stores the archive at home, putting printed photographs in sketchbooks and then adding marks and notes. However, when on view, she rarely includes titles, dates or descriptions. The images are left to speak for themselves so that visitors are welcome to imagine the stories that unfold through them. Try to limit them or define them at your peril. Instead, simply let yourself feel Artur’s instinctual eye and appreciate the power and enjoyment that exudes from the characters she has encountered.
“When I decided to call my work Black Balloon Archive it was a realisation that it can only grow and survive if I stay in constant dialogue with it. My exhibitions bring, each in its own way, this dialogue to the public. This ‘conversation’ is very enriching for my work,” she says, adding: “A lot of what happened to my archive is in the show. I tried to capture and represent the people and their energy. It’s all there for the test of time.”
Of life of sex of love of movement of hope by Liz Johnson Artur is on view at Foam Amsterdam until 9 February 2022
