Johanna Poethig: TERRESTRIAL EARTH STATION
May 28, 2021 – July 3, 2021
Earth Station Landline is a communication system of old-fashioned telephones that sends sound through plant growth patterns. Pink Salvia Antenna glows like a radio tower emanating phyllotactic pulses. Rhizosphere is a layered surface that riffs on the entangled soil-root-plant interface.
Johanna Poethig’s Terrestrial Earth Station series connects in a narrative that unfolds in the Quasi Extraterratropo zine. The patterns that connect all this work are the mathematical renderings of algorithms of plant growth, manipulated to open up the space in the compositions visually and conceptually.
Available Work
Johanna Poethig
Johanna Poethig is a contemporary artist known for her monumentally scaled murals and architecturally integrated public art, socially engaged collaborations, painting, multi media installations and performance. Her work is conceptually driven using image, text, symbol, and narrative to address critical social, cultural, and political themes. In contrast she explores nature, science, perception and the mystical, drawing visual ideas from predictive practices and mathematics. She grew up in the Philippines and has been active in Filipino-American arts community since the 1980’s. She is currently Lead Artist on a major public art project for 34 AC transit Stations along a 9-mile transit corridor from downtown Oakland to San Leandro. She just completed a large-scale mosaic for Rainbow Recreation Center and mural for the new College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences building at CSU, Monterey Bay. Her recent shows include the 40 year anniversary exhibit and performance for The Hole at SOMArts Gallery, Way Bay Artist Postcard collection of the Berkeley Art Museum, “Songs for Women Living With War” memorial project at Pro Arts Gallery, “Making our Mark” at Richmond Art Center, “Glamorgeddon: The Spectacle” at SOMArts Gallery in San Francisco, Manila Trans(ie)nt in the Philippines. Poethig received her MFA at Mills College and is Professor Emeritus of Painting and Public Art at the Visual and Public Art department at California State University, Monterey Bay.