Helen Johnson & Megan Cope @ Chapter, Wales

Helen Johnson and Megan Cope interrogate notions of identity, power and social history to explore the complex colonial relationship between Australia and Britain.
Using the medium of painting, Helen Johnson weaves and overlays historical and contemporary signifiers to establish points of tension and reflection. Using large-scale paintings mounted to a structure that zigzags through the gallery, she creates an economy of images within and between paintings; some are given precedence, others made barely legible. The paintings are the size of theatre backdrops, in excess of the body, becoming sets before which to act.