Faith Johnson

Arc of Infinity: a meditation on darkness and light

An interactive installation and meditations in response to the total solar eclipse for Ecoartspace: Transmission, with found objects including glass, mirror, acrylic, ceramic, obsidian, water, printed guides, and pillows, Canopy Gallery, Austin TX, 2024

The first meditation and interactive installation is focused on sitting with darkness as mystery and infinite possibilities - a sort of cosmic widening of the lens of consciousness. The second floor installation and meditation is focused on light and calling in what we desire for the future - visioning with hope - from this place of possibility. This is a sort of re-focusing of the lens - the way light brings form into being from the darkness.

Faith Johnson, Alexandra Jane Williams, Cathleen Sherwood

2020-present

Sacred Swim Society is an artist collective reconnecting with the sacredness of water through year round water dipping and aqua based magic making.

*see our instagram at: ssacredswimss

*video + image by Faith Johnson. Water Site Symbol concept by Faith Johnson, digitized by Cathleen Sherwood

Interactive installation and water meditation, with glass, mirrors, acrylic, local waters, embroidered pillows, vinyl lettering

As part of Waterlines, Somerville Museum, 2023, Boston, MA

Boston Art ReviewWonderland Review

The Magic of Water installation combines the crystalline and water like qualities of glass and mirrors to create a sacred vessel. This container holds local waters from the Mystic River, Walden Pond, and a secret spring in the Emerald Necklace. I spent time building relationships with each source through deep inner listening, year round dipping (in Walden Pond), and gathering the waters with gratitude.

Working in the realm of vision, imagination, and belief, I activate the installation through guided water meditations which connect participants to the consciousness and magic of water. The meditations were developed in response to metaphysical experiences I had with the waters of my ancestral Scandinavia. They are centered around envisioning a time when the waters flow in balance and joyfulness once more and ecological friendship is reignited or deepend. If something is to come into being it must first be envisioned and believed to be possible.

These local waters were gathered on the traditional lands of the; Massachusett, Pawtucket, Nipmuc, Agawam, and Naumkeag. This project is an adaptation of the Water Keepers’ Library project (2016-present), which houses water from around the world.

Documentation by Sue Murad (image one by Faith Johnson)

Interactive installation, 2016 - present, Arnheim Gallery, Boston MA; Mission Hill Gallery, Boston MA

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Water Keepers’ Library, an ongoing interactive project focusing on repairing the emotional and spiritual connection between humans and the waters of the earth. The project invites people from around the world to gratefully gather water which is then incorporated into the Water Keepers’ Library. During an exhibition, the water is displayed and labeled with its place of origin. Participants are invited to choose a drop of water from the library to hold in the palm of their hands and then take an imaginative journey accompanied by the sound of crystal singing bowls. During these meditations an origin story of water is shared and participants are invited to commune with their chosen water source.

I would like to acknowledge the indigenous tribes of the lands of North America and globally who have in the past and continue today to maintain a sacred connection to the natural world. Thank you. I would also like to acknowledge all the hands that have tended the earth past and present some through choice and many through force. I would like to acknowledge my own ancestors in the deep past and more recent who have cultivated in me a deep connection to the natural world of which I am a part.

Image documentation by Sue Murad (image one by Faith Johnson)

Performance video, 2022, International Ecoperformance Festival, São Paulo, Brazil

Terrestrial is a series of intimately ethereal moments with the natural world. All shot on an iPhone during ritual practices of meditative engagement with a sensitivity to the subtle language of the more-than-human world. It is meant to privilege the perspective of the Earth with the human presence blending gently into the landscape. Terrestrial highlights the complex magic that surrounds us and our interconnection - not only physically - but emotionally and spiritually to this biosphere.

A performance ritual for grief and transformation, 2023

Brick Island Studios, Boston, MA

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From the shell the incense rises

dancing with ephemeral beauty

it follows my hand

lingering

the smoke rises and disappears into the heavens

i gently cup the shell that remains in my hands

i close my eyes and raise the shell to my face

water runs down my cheeks

i hold the shell gently to my chest

water spills from the shell onto the floor

i breath into the into the shell

i hum into the shell… a wordless language

i invite others to hum with me…

we hum…. a kind of call

i raise the shell to my ear…. listening

listening….. listening

for your response…..

and in that wordless language i hear

slowly i release the shell

onto a resting place

i make an offering of tiny flowers

kissing each one with care

farewell to that which remains, a beautiful shell

Image documentation by Sue Murad

Interactive Installation, 2011, Solo Exhibition, The Dino Eli Gallery, New York, NY

The Bending of Light and Other Senses, an exhibit including video works and an interactive performance during gallery hours. The show explores the spiritual nature of rainbows and the possibility of psychic connections between humans. This interactive performance invites audience members to send psychic messages to each other through shape and color. The performance work is a continuation of the Transference Project, a long-term project done in collaboration with artist Leighton Collier Roux. The Transference Project spanned over the several years in which the artists communicate with each other psychically from opposite coastlines.The Bending of Light and Other Senses opens up an interactive space for what Joseph Campbell, author and historian, refers to as a kind of serious play, a space where we can indulge in possibilities that may crystalize into new ways of seeing and connecting.

Documentation Faith Johnson

Interactive site specific installation, 2018/19, River of Life community, Jamaica Plain MA

This contemplative community art piece was created while working along side a spiritual community. The function was to make a work of art that not only reflects the community but helps to activate visually - through metaphor and symbol - what is being expressed through their own processes. It is a visual support and assist to help with communal integration of the desire to come together in a common direction and to reflect the inherent beauty of that process.

This interactive installation was done in partnership with a local spiritual organization. Over a period of six months the organization went through a season of reflection and conversation around what it means to be a community of faith. I was invited to create a visual component to this process. Over a period of several weeks, the congregation was invited to place sequins on a wall representing the light contributed by each individual to the greater light of community. I came in after each service to connect the new layer of sequins with threads of reflective light across the back wall, forming a constellation. Throughout the community’s reflection process, written documentation was gathered, distilled and delivered to me to be added to the final installation. Before the community moved into a new phase of imagining, the artist created a final form representing the alchemy of coming together and being held by the presence of their collective vision. The final form was created in one day without the community seeing the process of transformation. The following service the community was surprised by the magic of the final image.

Documentation: Faith Johnson and community members

Interactive installation - as part of the Water Keepers’ Library Project, 2019, Mission Hill Gallery, Boston, MA

37 miles walking, 3 days, 3 mountains, 3 waters

Una~Agua~Water~Humantay Mountain Lake // Day one, 8 miles

Una~Agua~Water~ Salkantay Mountain Glacier Flow // Day two, 13 miles

Una~Agua~Water~ Machu Picchu Mountain Spring // Day three, 16 miles

Three water samples gathered from three mountains in the Andes—Humantay, Salkantay, and Machu Picchu—are shared as part of the Water Keepers’ Library, an ongoing interactive project focusing on repairing the emotional and spiritual connection between humans and the waters of the earth. Three guided water meditations are held that focus on dreams gathered by the artist from each respective mountain water source. Participants are also invited to journey through their imaginations to connect and commune with these waters as they hold a drop in the palm of their hands. Each meditation acknowledges the suffering of the people and the land as well as the sentience of the water and the power and resiliency of the indigenous people of the land.

The mountain waters brought many dreams~ I dreamt of the suffering colonialism has caused the people and I saw it in the waking world. I dreamt of a great mountain opening up to reveal a massive city from another time and I saw new waters being born. I dreamt I saw a figure far below with a long white robe flowing behind them gliding through a never-ending forest of trees…turning into a dragon… into a snake…into water… only later to see my dream unfold in the waking world as I watched from a mountain top foaming white waters winding like a snake through the valleys below~

I would like to acknowledge the indigenous tribes of the lands of North America and globally who have in the past and continue today to maintain a sacred connection to the natural world. Thank you. I would also like to acknowledge all the hands that have tended the earth past and present some through choice and many through force. I would like to acknowledge my own ancestors in the deep past and more recent who have cultivated in me a deep connection to the natural world of which I am a part.

Interactive site responsive installation for: Near Death Performance Art Experience, 2013, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA

Participants were asked to navigate the interactive installation while meditating on this question:
"If we could dream a new world what would it be like?"

Photographic Documentation: Faith Johnson

Video Documentation: Daniel S. Deluca, edited by Sandrine Schaefer

Interactive multi medium installation, solo exhibition, 2014, Boston Children's Museum, Boston, MA

Documentation by Sean Johnson

Film clip from "Star Traveler,” a collaboration with Magical Approach

Performative action with handmade plexiglass pyramid, in collaboration with Lauren Payne, 2010, The Homestead Artist Residency, Willow, AK

Documentation by Lauren Payne

Your Breath Holds Me Above the Water
Bordering the Invisible, interactive performance, 2007, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

There is a blow up pool full of water. I ask people to fill plastic bags with their breath and pin them to my clothes. I tell them that I would like to see if their breath could keep me above the water. Many hands cover me with pockets of breath…they become my outer lungs. I test these efforts and find that I can float…I am held by the collective breath…I hug their gifts lovingly to my body…for safety…for comfort. And when the water becomes too cold and I cannot release the air quickly enough--hands come to my aid and I am released from the moment’s end.

Documentation by Philip Johnson

Suburban Dreams

Video performance, 2007

Interactive performance in collaboration with Leighton Collier Roux, 2008, Firehouse 13, Providence, RI

We set up a table with gold paint, glitter, and sequins. We offer the audience a chance to have gold hands for the evening. We are investigating ways of seeing ourselves….our hands. What if we thought of our hands as magic….what if we thought of our power to do? The gold is a reference to the precious and draws awareness to our hands for the evening…to each other’s hands…how they move….what they are capable of. 

Documentation by Sean Johnson

Objects for Remembering, Interactive installation, 2015, Worlds Within Worlds, Proof Gallery, Boston, MA

Participants are asked to gather in 3 under the canopy and find a common dream. 

Interactive installation, 2015, Worlds Within Worlds, Proof Gallery, Boston, MA

Performative Action, 2010, The Homestead Artist Residency, Willow, AK

 Photo documentation by Lauren Payne

I would like to acknowledge the indigenous tribes of the lands of North America and globally who have in the past and continue today to maintain a sacred connection to the natural world. Thank you. I would also like to acknowledge all the hands that have tended the earth past and present some through choice and many through force. I would like to acknowledge my own ancestors in the deep past and more recent who have cultivated in me a deep connection to the natural world of which I am a part.

Apparitions of a Forest (making presence known)

Video, 2010, The Homestead Artist Residency, Willow, AK

The Meaning of Circles 
Durational performance, 2010, 10 days/1-2hrs per day, The Homestead Artist Residency, Willow, AK

I walk in a circle…wishing to journey into places that have no path and that you cannot see. Stirring time…I walk in a circle. Will I leave some of my presence behind here if I walk long enough? I walk in a circle… I sense things that are not there but once were. I walk in a circle….I lose my body and I become only spirit. I walk in a circle…I close my eyes and let my feet guide me. I walk in a circle....Am I visible now on another plain of existence? 

Will I still be there walking in a circle even when I am gone?

Interactive Sculpture, 2013, Made 2 Move; a mobile art exhibition of tiny works whose mission is to bring contemporary art to underserved communities, New York, NY

These headphones are made to enhance one's experience of their surroundings. Each headphone has a small opening at the far end away from each ear, thus allowing certain frequencies that are already in the environment of the wearer to be enhanced. These devices are meant to connect the user to their surroundings in an intimate way without isolating or disconnecting their experience from it's context.

Documentation by Faith Johnson and Leah Gauthier

Interactive Performance, 2013, Grace Exhibition Space, NY

I ask each audience member to bring one or more fresh flowers to this interactive artwork. Audience members are then invited to help string the flowers into wreaths throughout the evening. Once a wreath has been finished it is given away to a stranger outside the gallery space. Participants who choose to give the wreaths away finish by sharing their experiences. It was revealed through this work that to give and to receive are actions deeply and unnecessarily complicated by our habits and social norms. However, when the act of giving is completed, a rush of joy was to be found for both the giver and the receiver.

Documentation Faith Johnson

Interactive performance, 2010, MEME Gallery, Boston MA

For this action I walk down Massachusetts Avenue and ask people to lean back to back with me until we find a balance and a connection.

Leaning back-to-back….finding a balance. A connection is reached with a silent negotiation of human contact.

I lean against a stranger until they are not strange….building an arc of trust through a gesture…..rediscovering trust in places where it seems hidden.

Carry Me

Public performance in collaboration with Adina Bier, 2010, Grace Space, Brooklyn, NY

We meet on a street corner, to carry each other (back to back) down Bedford Avenue. We use the physical metaphor of carrying one another to explore the beauty and complications that manifest within the human need to share burdens.

A Place for Nobody
Installation, The Homestead Artist Residency, Willow, Alaska, 2010

Documentation by Faith Johnson

Durational performance, 15 hrs, 2008, Space Other, Boston, MA

Sometimes I feel myself disappearing…becoming so small that I am
overwhelmed by feelings of powerlessness, and all I can do is breathe.

It is in these moments that I begin to find strength in the persistence of breath. During the exhibition I capture my breath by blowing into a clear plastic sphere. Throughout the exhibition the sphere gradually fills the gallery with my presence as it expands and takes shape from over 3,000 breaths. At the end of the exhibition the collected breath is released in a long exhale with the help of audience participation. By catching this breath I am able to understand it as a force and extension of presence, filling up the spaces that my body cannot.

Documentation by Chuck Chaney, Cathleen Faubert, and Darren Miller

Interactive Performance, 2010-11, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY 2010; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Video documentation by Faith Johnson

Photo documentation by Bob Raymond

Interactive installation, 2012, Proof Gallery, Boston, MA

For this interactive installation I was interested in the idea of creating a vortex of energy facilitated by my presence and continued through the presence of the audience. I have been fascinated by the energy vortexes in places such as Sedona Arizona and I wondered if humans could create an energy pocket through a collective intention. I created a delicate and intimate space out of thread and spent hours in the space meditating before opening the work to the public. The focus of my meditation was connection and healing in the broadest sense. When the space was open to the public I simply asked the audience to remove their shoes, enter the space quietly, and send or receive healing energy. 

Documentation Faith Johnson

Performed In collaboration with Leighton Collier Roux, 2010-12, Mobius, Boston, MA; University of Oklahoma; Norman, OK; Scope Art Fair, New York, NY

For this piece both artists committed to meeting each other psychically by designating a time and then focusing their intention on becoming close to one another as if they were occupying the same room despite the reality of being on opposite sides of the country in two different time zones. They have evidence of successfully connecting with one another through shared emotions, somatic sensations, and flashes of color, memory, and visual images of the other recorded through journals kept by both and then reviewed and confirmed at a later time over the phone.

When performed live one artist is usually present with the gallery audience while the other artist performs remotely. After the psychic meeting has concluded, the remote artist calls in and opens up the performance for the audience's comments and questions.

Through this project it is our hope to open up other senses of communing that may be dormant within us. Through our actions of transference we also hope to bring further understanding to ideas of presence, absence, and extensions of self. Most importantly we wish to create possibilities for deeper human connections with each other and the world around us.

Documentation Faith Johnson and Leighton Collier Roux

Interactive site responsive performance, 2010, The Lumen Festival/Grace Space, New York, NY

This is an interactive performance exploring the Jungian based idea of the collective unconscious as viewed through a spiritual and visual lens. I draw the outline of people’s bodies on the side of a building. The outline of our bodies acts as a metaphor for each embodied spirit. Drawn one on top of the other, each body outline maintains an individual and collective shape simultaneously.

Documentation by Faith Johnson and Adina Bier

Durational performance, 2009, FiveSevenDelle, Boston, MA

If my thoughts could be seen coming out of my head I imagine that they would spread out over space through my hair, making shapes and suspending me as one thought moves into another.

Documentation by Cathleen Faubert