NATASHA JOHNS-MESSENGER: HERE
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Front gallery

Catalogue text by Bernhard Sachs

Natasha Johns-Messenger’s Here was an interactive installation conceived especially for the shop-front gallery at 200 Gertrude Street. Using materials that mimicked those of the gallery’s construction, Johns-Messenger built a walk-through, maze-like structure encompassing mirrors and live video feeds that reflected real and virtual images of the gallery, streetscape and participant viewers actively engaged in the space of the work. Here continued Natasha Johns-Messenger’s use of illusion and the re-alignment of architectural and perceptual space. By employing optical techniques to expand and subvert existing spatial views, the artist invited us to question our physical and psychological expectations of the space around us.