Viva Lewes Issue #134 November 2017

ALEXANDER JOHNSON
to Laughton, I was in the local
post office and I found this little
book on RAF Deanland, near
Hailsham, with a picture of a
Spitfire on the front. Because my
father had been a Spitfire pilot,
anything with a Spitfire grabs
my attention, so I bought it. I
got back to the studio and realised
it was about a local airfield
that had been built to support
the D-Day landings in 1944, and
I thought, ‘this is it – this is the
gift I’ve been waiting for’.
“I cycled out there and managed
to get an introduction with
the guy who owns the airfield
now, and sort of self-appointed
myself as artist in residence
there. I go out and I sketch,
generally in charcoal, and I do
pretty standard landscape drawings
of the buildings there and
the Downs in the distance and
the trees. Once I’ve got that in
my head, I continue to redraw
those scenes, but they become
more and more abstracted and
refined, and I leave more and
more information out, so I end
up with a much simpler scene.
It’s a sort of distillation, I suppose
– a simplification.
“I had an exhibition earlier this
year and at the private view
I met a photographer called
John Brockliss, who was also
between projects. We got talking
about my Deanland images
and he decided that he’d like
to make a body of work documenting
me doing the project.
Out of that he’s now decided to
produce a book, which is coming
out next year. The book will
be half black-and-white photographs
of the working process
and me in the studio, interspersed
with colour plates that
has been made: silk screens and
etchings and oil paintings. John
approached Antony Penrose to
write the preface to the book.
He came over and saw the work,
liked it, and obviously saw parallels
between what he’s doing
with his mother’s photographs.
We’re treading quite similar
paths in a way, because I’m trying
to retell my dad’s story, he’s
trying to retell Lee’s [his mother
Lee Miller’s] story.” The book
comes out in June 2018, with an
exhibition at 35 North Gallery in
Brighton.
Rebecca Cunningham
Alexander will be the focus of
an exhibition and print sale at
Gallery 40 in Brighton from the
4th to the 10th Dec. His drawing
'Deanland Oaks' was selected for
the Jerwood Drawing Prize this
year and will be touring until July
2018. alexander-johnson.com
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