Restoration, 2002. Two channel video projection. Looped, colour, sound.

The installationRestoration comprises of video projections on two opposing walls. One projection is a fixed view out over Hagi beach in south west Japan and the other is looking out from a doorway in Bashō's hut in Kyoto, Japan. Each has a coda in the form of a quotation: one from David Hume's 1748 essay “Of The Original Contract” and the other from the American artist Carl Andre, respectively. The work relates to Johnston’s enquiries into the cultural context, construction and ambivalence of spatial understanding. A particular focus of which has been the effects and implications of Japanese architectonic practices and how these are commensurable and related to western spatial approaches. Johnston practice has utilized a form of architectural fenestration both as an active device for framing and demarcation but also through an integrated drawing practice. Johnston’s drawings are often directly upon the wall, and through a glyph like gesture, describe a near invisible geometric parameter or aperture.

Alan Johnston lives and works in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has exhibited widely, venues include: Tate Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Inverleith House, Edinburgh; Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; Hayward Gallery, London; the Jack Tilton Gallery and the Whitney Museum, NYC; the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; and SAFN, Reykjavik, Iceland. He is also a frequent collaborator with architects and has worked with Shinichi Ogawa; Reiach and Hall; Diener and Diener; and GROSS MAX.