LSU MOA recently spoke with graduate assistant Autumn Johnson, first year MFA candidate studying Printmaking at LSU. Johnson has been assisting LSU MOA Educator Grant Benoit on projects centered around our current exhibition, Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, which consists of 56 photographers documentations of Southern life and culture. Projects include LSU MOA’s annual student zine project which is open to students to respond to an exhibit through poetry and art; and developing other educational resources. Check out our conversation below to learn more!
Image: Autumn Johnson, LSU MOA Graduate Assistant / First Year MFA candidate in Printmaking at LSU
LSU MOA: Hi Autumn! Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself and the work you are doing at the museum?
AJ: My name is Autumn Johnson and I’m a first year MFA candidate studying Printmaking at LSU. I’m assisting LSU MOA Educator Grant Benoit on projects and we just wrapped up a call for student submissions to a zine in response to or inspired by our current exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South. To learn more about creative publications, I recently also held a Zoom talk with the editor of longstanding on-campus publication New Delta Review, Ian Lockaby and helped the LSU Museum of Art host a socially distanced outdoor student-centered event in the museum plaza. I am very excited about having the opportunity to get people interested in looking at and thinking about art. Hopefully, I can gain experience teaching classes and performing demonstrations through LSU MOA too.
LSU MOA: Which photographs from Southbound speak to you and why? Any specific artists?
AJ: J & R’s, Deer Heads, Perry County, Alabama (2002) by Jerry Siegel speaks to me. I am from rural southeastern Ohio, and this photograph of taxidermied deer heads directly above diner booths reminds me of the taxidermy that fills the walls of my town's local gas station that is also a deli, carry out, animal feed, and hardware store. (click here to view Jerry Siegel’s work)
Through Darkness to Light: Photographs along the Underground Railroad, by Jeanine Michna-Bales is my favorite series in the Southbound exhibition. These nighttime photographs of cypress swamps, thick forests, and farmhouses underneath clear starry skies stand alone as beautiful imagery, but once I realized that these photographs were taken along the Underground Railroad, I was touched. Through Darkness to Light is a thoughtful ode to all the people that risked everything to fight for their freedom, as well as those who fought for the freedom of others. (click here to view Jeanine Michna-Bales work)
LSU MOA: What interests you most about Southbound and why should fellow students come and see it?
AJ: Southbound is an impressive exhibition in both concept and scale. To create, organize, and install an exhibition consisting of 56 artists requires an immense amount of effort from the artists who worked so hard to create these photographs as well as everyone involved in curating, handling, installing, and labeling so many pieces.
LSU MOA: Tell us about this year’s LSU MOA zine, titled the Southbound Zine Project.
AJ: Calls for creative work were sent to all LSU School of Art, Creative Writing, and Media students. Multiple photography students have submitted their work for the zine, which is great since Southbound is a photography exhibition. Students in printmaking and poetry have also submitted awesome creative work and have recorded themselves reading entries.
Check out the link below for selected submissions to the LSU MOA Southbound Zine Project and hear students read their writing submissions plus more!
AJ: At the LSU Museum of Art's student-centered and socially distanced outdoor event in November 2020, we provided a making station where participants were asked to make a collage about their personal interpretation of life in the South during the 21st century that will be included as entries in the Southbound Zine. The collages turned out great, and we can’t wait to share the zine publications on Free First Sunday on February 7!
Images above: Students who created collages during LSU MOA Student Night. Kirsten Campbell, LSU MOA Curatorial Graduate Assistant, also helped facilitate the Southbound Zine Project during LSU MOA Student Night
LSU MOA: You recently spoke with Ian Lockaby, the editor of the New Delta Review on Zoom. Can you tell us about this collaboration?
AJ: I asked Ian Lockaby, editor of the New Delta Review (NDR) to have a conversation with me about NDR, a publication at LSU which has been active for many years. I thought that speaking with someone who is already actively participating in facilitating publications here at LSU would be a great way to get everyone excited about the Southbound Zine Project while learning about the New Delta Review. Ian also talked with us about his experience as a creative in the South and did a reading of one of his poems that is influenced by the South.
Watch the video below for this interview and hear Ian Lockaby’s poetry reading (closed captioning available on YouTube link below).
LSU MOA: You are studying printmaking at LSU for their graduate program, can you tell us more about what your process is and what you are working on? Does working in the South now, being from Ohio, influence any of your work?
AJ: I study animals and animal behavior to learn and improve upon my understanding of the complexities surrounding the cycle of life through intaglio printmaking. Intaglio manipulates copper through chemical and physical methods, allowing the copper to hold ink which is transferred onto paper by running the inked copper and paper through a press.
Moving to Louisiana has absolutely influenced my artmaking process. My most successful work from my first semester at LSU is inspired by alligator gar, a Southern species of freshwater fish that is often referred to as a "living fossil" due to fossil evidence of their existence dating back to 100 million years ago. I also used resurrection ferns that fell from a live oak on campus during Hurricane Delta for textures in my alligator gar piece.
IMAGES: Autumn Johnson, Alligator Gar, 24" x 36" Copper intaglio print on BFK. 2020
Free First Sunday: February 7
Get a Free Southbound Zine Project Publication!
Pick up a Southbound Zine Project publication during Free First Sunday on February 7 from 1-5 p.m. For more info: click here or email LSU MOA Grant Benoit at gbenoit1@lsu.edu
To learn more about Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South, click here
Be sure to follow LSU Museum of Art on social media @lsumoa for more updates and to learn more about the museum!
We appreciate Louisiana CAT for supporting LSU Museum of Art graduate assistantships. Their support allows the museum to provide arts education and career experience to students. Thank you!
Interview by LSU MOA Communications Coordinator Sarah Amacker