Pia Johnson is a visual artist, photographer, curator and educator. Her primary discipline is in performance and portrait photography and she has been commissioned by some of Australia’s leading performing arts companies to photograph for documentation, promotional and dramaturgy purposes.
Her personal projects explore themes of migration, mobility, cross-cultural identity and belonging; informed by her own experiences as a Chinese, Malaysian, Italian Australian. Her work has been exhibited across Australia and Internationally, including at the National Gallery of Victoria. Johnson is a lecturer and Program Manager of the Master of Photography at RMIT University where she completed her PhD in Fine Arts in 2021.
In this Colour Box Studio interview, Johnson discusses some of her greatest achievements, her current residency at the Immigration Museum and her fellowship at the State Library of Victoria.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I am a visual artist, photographer, curator and educator. My work has stemmed from my mixed cultural heritage of Chinese Malaysian, Italian and Australian descent where I have explored notions of cultural identity and belonging. More broadly I explore ideas that speak to migration and mobility, that draw upon notions of performativity and autoethnography.
Alongside my fine art practice, I am a commercial photographer that specialises in portrait and performance photography, and am commissioned by most of the major performing arts organisations in Victoria, as well as creatives within the industry.
I am currently a Lecturer at RMIT University and the Program Manager of the Master of Photography.
How did you start your creative practice and why?
I think I have always been creative, even when I was a small child I was into drawing and then creative writing, sewing and designing. For me being creative is part of who I am. If I don’t make artwork then I go a bit stir crazy, it keeps me sane.
Originally, I was a textile/installation artist, and this started during my high school days. After leaving university I started working in the creative industries, but realised I wanted to be creative myself rather than supporting creatives within an artistic administrative / producing role. At the time I was taking a lot of photographs in my spare time and my then boyfriend (now husband) suggested I take up photography as a career, and I guess that is how I became a photographer.
Where did you grow up and how has it influenced your practice?
I’m from Melbourne, and grew up in the suburbs. While this didn’t really influence my practice, it was more my family that influenced me. My mother sewed and taught me how to sew (which was my original medium), and then I also spent a lot of time as a child with my late Chinese Malaysian grandparents in Australia also, and my grandfather was very creative and taught me how to draw and do woodwork.
Tell us about your past creative projects. What has been your most treasured highlight so far?
I have done a lot of creative works over my career and can’t really highlight one specific one. My projects tend to be grouped into 3 areas: cross-cultural identity and belonging, and collaborative projects. In addition, having my professional or commercial work is also really rewarding as it keeps me up to date with industry standards and engaged in a different way to the arts scene. Finally, finishing my PhD in 2021 was a huge achievement enabling me to create a significant project that was situated within a deep research methodology.
Tell us about your current project?
I’m working on a few different projects at the moment, all of which are engaging and taking me into new territories that I am really enjoying.
This year I’m a fellow at the State Library of Victoria and I’m working on a project that is about researching female performance photographers in Australia, specifically looking at how they have photographed the performing arts in Melbourne/Victoria and their contribution, but also consider why it’s such a small community of women that are taking these types of photographs and why that still is the case in the current industry.
I also have the incredible opportunity of being an Artist in Residence at the Immigration Museum this year too. Here my new work Re-Orient is a photographic project that uses the Immigration Museum as a site-specific location to explore post-colonial identity and migration. Specifically, through a photographic and self-portraiture lens I will spend time there exploring how the place speaks to notions of belonging, and how it has shaped the transcultural landscape in Melbourne.
Lastly, I’m doing a collaborative project with Janelle Low and Karima Baadilla which will be presented in an exhibition at Counihan Gallery Melbourne in July, called Peonies, Still life and A Duck. This project has come from a place where we are all wanting to try new things and play more with our individual practices. We are good friends and come together to talk about art, family, culture and food. The show will be full of life and dynamic in terms of presenting the work altogether and all over the gallery space – mixed together rather than separated individually.
Who or what inspires your practice?
There are lots of artists and different mediums that inspires me and my work. I love art, photography, poetry, music and memoir. I also love travelling and experiencing different cultures and spaces and have found working on residencies a fruitful way to create new work.
What do you hope audiences take from your work?
I want audiences to be able to feel something, or find something that engages them within my work, or to start a conversation. I love when people can relate to my work with their own experience, this is a huge compliment.
What gets you through creative challenges or tough industry times?
The recent pandemic was pretty rough, but I think the things that get me through are consolidating my thinking about my creative projects, starting new conversations with artists I’d like to work with or get advice from, and to reflect over what I’ve done up until that point. I am also a strong advocate for taking a break (even though I am not great at doing that myself)!
Whose work are you digging at the moment?
I have been totally in love with Wendy Red Star’s work for a while and have loved her recent publication Delegation which surveys most of her work to date.
Where can we find and follow you online?
You can find my work on my website www.piajohnson.com or follow me on Instagram @piajohnsonphotography