By Patrick Cusack/reporter

Corey Kent Johnson’s art installation on SE Campus takes a fascinating look at sculpture and its meaning.
“I am exploring identity in relationship to a sense of place” he said.

“ Location can be a marker of selfhood even if it is romanticized and subject to change,” the artist said.

The installation in Art Corridor II features more than 75 white box frames that hold photographs with a texture changing the normalcy of the standard flat surface of a photograph.

“ Through the collection of images and objects, I then create ‘display cases’ that relate to memories I associate with the place from which these objects were collected,” he said.

“ Memory is often a key component in my work because it does not exist separately from place, but arises out of human emotional engagement as it occurs in its concrete particularity,” he said.

The abundance of flat, rising and falling lines of boxes echoes the journey that is Johnson’s artwork.

“ Walking is my object, transcending the physical act with a series of steps,” he said.

Johnson said he uses walking as a way to take on a meditative state, slowing down to discover his surroundings and turn his concentration inward to provide him with his artistic inspiration.

“ I grew up in North Dallas. My options were to watch TV, read, talk on the phone or to sit and stare at the wall,” he said.

“ I chose to go on walks. I like feeling the air as it naturally is and unaltered by air-conditioning,” he said.
The artistic installation also includes cases that house ant lions.

“ The ant lions also dig down and reveal the red soil and in a sense create the image for me,” he said.

“ I am also looking to create an image of a sample of earth that has been marked by me, altered in someway,” he said.

Starting out as an art major, Johnson received his bachelor’s degree in history. Armed with his degree, he started working in an office, which wasn’t appealing to him.

“ I spent many years working in offices and dealing with the boredom and a nagging feeling that I should be doing something else—anything outside of a cubical,” he said.

Johnson began reading about art and taking art classes at his local community college, which helped him understand what he wanted to do in life.

“ Actually it was the courses I took at Brookhaven Community College that helped me formulate and then realize my goals.”

Johnson began graduate school at the University of Dallas and graduated with a Master of Arts in sculpture and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture. In 2006 he became an adjunct professor at Brookhaven College, where he had rekindled his passion in the arts.

This is his sixth exhibition since 2003. It will remain open through Friday, Sept. 28.