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James Davis in Philadelphia Weekly
Jimmy Joe Roche on Icon
Johnston Foster in Les Affiches de Grenoble et du Dauphine
Translation:
The Joyous Apocalypse
He announces the entrance of color. And from the color, the less we may be able to tell what there is…
From the first room, a disemboweled shark is left to flee from the contents of its entrails: aluminum cans, a skateboard… and stillborn baby sharks. It’s strong and impressive. Right away, everything is said from the method of the artist: his questioning about the overproduction and over consumption of our society, the damages that are the result on nature- and so, in the end, on our life as well. The intention accordingly proves itself more striking, that Johnston FOSTER draws in this frenetic flight forward, at once the theme of his work… and the materials allowing it to develop. In fact, it’s with scraps that the young American artist composes a work devoted to the denunciation of the generalized (widespread) garbage. Thus, his sharks see themselves inside of a linoleum skin, from the guts from the pipes of a vacuum cleaner and from a dentition (a set of teeth) from the teeth of a fork.
The work is paradoxical: it is partial to lively colors (the same colors from the contemporary synthetic materials) and bubbling with optimistic energy. At least, in appearance; because, in reality, this energy is the one, if not from despair, at least from the protestation. Johnston FOSTER likes to get on our nerves: his emergence of orange rats throws on us a light malaise; and his multi-colored nests of gigantic wasps only half-reassure us. For his vision of the desert (cacti from PVC pipes, coyote from strips of leatherette, a snake from shreds of tire, a three-headed vulture and dog from a mop), it is scarcely encouraged in the contemplative tranquility.
How is it, then, that this work puts in joy? Then there is the love of shades, which shouts and revives; the taste, the still touching mended trash with love; and a desire (very American) to show the positive. If he does not make the mistake of expressing his indignation, Johnston FOSTER acquits himself, here, of a playful manner: playing from a communicative fantasy and from a jubilant resourcefulness. As a result, the nests of wasps (those same ones that were from time to time hardly disturbed) captivate, from the moment when we learn that they were made with garbage bags melted by a blowtorch. And the seated skeleton in the grass that the artist created for the exterior terrace of the Centre d’Art Bastille looks very nice. We would gladly click our jaws for a moment with him, that good old bag (heap) of bones.
“Token Omen” The sculptures of Johnston Foster: Exposition open until November 14th at the Centre d’Art Bastille (Site sommital de la Bastille, Grenoble; tel. 0476544067): open from Tuesday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Eamon O’Kane in Domus
Jimmy Joe Roche in Charm City Current
Jimmy Joe Roche in Belio Magazine
Jean-Pierre Roy in Hi-Fructose
