Ever After

 

Art Review Pip Goldsbury

 

Following her nostalgic series, Rapport, Vashti Johnstone’s latest show, Ever After, is an extension of life-affirming hope, a deeply vibrant celebration of playful decadence and a joyous reminder of the goodness of life.

 

Stepping away from the ordinary and the mundane, Ever After is an exuberant other-worldly encounter, a peep into the magical and the mystical, a realm of possibility and hope. It’s a series of eight works that offer an escape from raw reality paving a way forward. 

 

Steeped in symbolism, the show is immediately identifiable as Vashti’s. A patchwork of rich colour and graphic patterns mark the works, while stylised animals, garden scenes and dense bush offer the viewer familiarity. However, there’s a magical quality about this series, a sense of stardust and a feeling of hope. Light shines through this world of wonder and curiosity, leading to a new maturity. Jumping down the rabbit hole of Vashti’s imagination is a contradiction of the things we know. It’s a discovery of new ways forward and new realities. Encouraged to think differently, it’s an Alice in Wonderland experience, one of freeing prior opinions and acting on our thoughts.

 

‘Burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it…never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.’ – Lewis Carroll; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; 1865

 

Vashti’s fantastical interpretation of an ethereal world is real and imagined. A dream state of calmness, Ever after is a rich outlet of possibility, a place we can all go if we just let go.