'HEIRLOOM' - Johanna Valom

Johanna Valom is an oil painter and textile artist based in Perth, Western Australia.

Inspired by tapestries inherited from her grandmother, Valom reflects on the paradoxical emotion of nostalgia and the fleeting nature of memory. She creates abstract landscapes which seek to explore the sublime, the joy, and the whimsy found in mundane everyday scenes. Picturesque cottages, dilapidated sheds and untamed bushland all serve equally as inspiration in her works. Her practice plays with the evocative ability of colour and luscious application of paint; using striking combinations in her focus on abstraction within landscapes. She paints from both direct observation and from memories - in this she continues to consider the importance of both the breaking and preservation of traditions, and the oscillating, tacit dialogue between past and present.

'HEIRLOOM to me is not only material but traditional and cultural; deeply rooted in memory.

How precious we hold heirlooms and inheritance. In my work I consider nature and the landscape as heirloom. Inherited history/culture, inherited traditions.

In looking at Western Australian landscapes, cottages and farmland, I feel a connection to my family’s migrant history and their origins in Australia. I consider their hardships in the Netherlands to come to Australia. I consider the connection to our heritage at the same time as a striving to move forward and create a new life. I consider the preservation of tradition at the same time as individuality and rebellion from traditions and to some extent cultural identity. The passing of time and the remembering of traditions is a universal experience. In one way or another, people in all places, in all walks of life experience these things.

Colour in my work represents conformity and rebellion. Bold colours within muted and more neutral palettes represent the formation of new traditions and new memories. Splashes of rebellious, sometimes unexpected colour.

The landscape and life within it as a tapestry in itself – sometimes sharp and comprehensible, at other times achingly abstract and removed. At all times tied together and united by the same threads that bind us all – memory, history, and traditions. Interconnectedness.

Titles echo sentimental platitudes and words of encouragement, speaking of perseverance and strength.

Methodical and repetitive brushwork, connecting & responding to traditional needlework and tapestry work – techniques passed down through the generations.'