Musings with Johanna Tagada
Thursday's Harvest
a Collaboration with Johanna Tagada
filmed and edited by Juliette Riegel
Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck is a French painter and multidisciplinar artist working across London (UK) and rural Alsace (France). Her love for nature and appreciation for the beauty of ordinary and simple things come together in this short film captured by Juliette Riegel. Below Johanna shares with us a special glimpse into her gentle and mindful approach to all things that surround her.
As a creative who expresses herself and lives through art, how can you contribute to our planet’s reconstruction?
To understand the contribution I wish to bring, it is integral to comprehend that my practice, is grounded in painting. To declare that we reconstruct is equivalent to saying that there is a malfunction, I absolutely acknowledge that there is, and so more than one. I see the issues not only in the current climate change emergency and all that this brings about to so many, yet also in the manner we have for centuries treated life, be it human and non-human.
Through my drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, short films, textiles, publications, writings, as well as projects I partake or initiate, I perceive and approach creative actions as a mean of thinking and living which offers positive possibilities and perspectives. Over the past years what I have been trying to do as a creative was and still is, to challenge our compassionate actions (including my own) towards all, including Earth, to which we belong, my works often conceals ecological messages as in the ongoing project Penser, Manger, Partager (French for To Think, To Eat, To Share) or in the exhibition Take Care (Nidi Gallery, Tokyo - 2018). I am hoping that my practice may bring about a sense of togetherness and so despite our various differences, as well spaces where one may let go and feel cared for.
I would like to share here the Poetic Pastel Press ‘Goodbye Note’ at the end of publications since its founding in 2015 : For a better world say no to racism, discrimination, nukes, war, animal slaughter sweatshops and pollution. We encourage and support the development of positive, cruelty free and sustainable lifestyles.
As I share glimpse of my quotidian and collaborations throughout my works as well as on social medias such as Instagram, pieces which include the garden, I hope to invigorate the desires in others for organic homegrown food, plant a seed towards an interest for Veganism, to favour independent initiatives rather than huge companies, as well as healthy activities which do not require money such as taking in a local forest walk. .
A book currently in your nightstand?
Notes on suicide by Simon Critchley, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions. It is a nurturing reading that responses to the lack we, as societies, have for, in the word of its author “a language for speaking honestly about suicide because we find the topic so hard to think about, at once both deeply unpleasant and gruesomely compelling”. This book, which so far I would only recommend, opens up a needed space on the gesture and all that surrounds it.
With everything going on in the world, what do you miss the most?
Answering this question, aware of my privilege, I have a confortable space to live and work, have good relations with my family and can spend time in the garden daily. I do realise this is not granted to all of us and can be even more difficult in time of lockdown. Yet, to answer your question, what I miss the most are small pleasure of the daily which I enjoyed before Covid such as going to the library to browse through for a while and borrow books, going to public talks with friends and then for tea or dinner. Visiting exhibitions too, and of course a certain sense of lightness when going to public places.
What does the concept of lightness mean to you?
Painting, fluidity, remembrance of death, colours as covered with strokes of creamy paint, sleep after love and petals are the words, visuals and feelings attached to lightness to me..
What’s on your horizon?
Personally to allow myself to deepen my knowledge in topics which I am interested in, including horticulture, to keep making, healing and learning. I spent most of the summer offline, which came with the perspective that less time online was best for me, as a result, a new and much more enjoyed rhythm.
In regards to my practice several solo exhibitions are due to open in the coming months, an exhibition titled Memories from the Ordinary is currently open in the galerie space of Tenoha in Milan (September), other exhibition are to open Pon Ding in Taipei (Octobre), Nidi Gallery in Tokyo and Readan Deat in Hiroshima (November). In Switzerland, independent publisher Nieves just released a new zine of my collages, it is titled A Tiny Mingei Museum.
Johanna during the harvest wearing the Comète dress in Chalk/ Butter .
Filmed by Juliette Riegel.
Bio
Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck (b.1990, Strasbourg, France) is a painter and interdisciplinary artist working across London (UK) and rural Alsace (France). Her practice composed of painting, drawing, installation, sculpture, film, photography and writing often conceals ecological messages, rendered in soft and delicate methods. In several of the artist’s projects interaction with the environment and others plays a central role. Solo exhibitions include Épistolaire Imaginaire – Merci at Galerie Jean-Francois Kaiser, and Take Care – きをつけてat Nidi Gallery. In 2014, Johanna founded the positive and collaborative cultural project Poetic Pastel. In 2018, the artist cofounded the publication series Journal du Thé – Contemporary Tea Culture in collaboration with T.S. Wendelstein.
Instagram @johannatagada