The making of Johanna Unzueta: Tools for Life

“The materials I use are impermanent, vulnerable to change. […] This transience is about how we exist, our expectations of permanence and longevity.” – Johanna Unzueta, Artforum, March 2020

Watch artist Johanna Unzueta create one of her beautiful wall murals directly onto the walls of Modern Art Oxford. These drawings form part of her exhibition Tools for Life.

In an interview with Artforum in March 2020,Johanna spoke about the impermanence of the materials she works with:

“The oil pastel and charcoal of the murals, or the tinted papers of the drawings – these alter over time. This transience is about how we exist, our expectations of permanence and longevity. We change every day, nothing stays the same. I like my work to reflect this. I don’t expect it to have a long life. I expect it to live as long as you or I, maybe, or a flower or a tree.”