Art - Lou Johns

I recognise Lou Johns’ work as soon as I step into the Chalk Gallery - the huge Giacometti-influenced ‘triform’ of human figures made of resin mixed with aluminium and bronze that protruded from the middle of Falmer pond during Brighton Festival (I look closely for signs of pond weed but find none). Not that they look like resin though, in fact you would expect them to be made of solid bronze. Lou produces various figures in several sizes, I learn, ranging from the huge triforms and ‘dyads’ (two figures) to tiny individual pieces made out of different materials. They each have names and she refers to them affectionately when she takes me through the collection. The names and the personalities suggest themselves after the work is finished, she says, never before. I’m introduced to one - made of solid silver - which is the most valuable of them all, and Persephone - a rusty bronze creature emerging from a base of ‘found oak’. “I love the feel of wood and the sense of natural growth”, says Lou, “contrasting with the feeling of age and decay.”  There is something primitive and ancient about her work, I venture, asking if this is deliberate. She agrees. “I like to get rid of the superfluous and search for an essence”. Subsequently she’s on an ongoing quest for interesting shapes. At her daughter’s prize-giving recently, Lou was struck by the strong angularity of her neighbour’s shoulders and started sketching them on the back of her programme. The sketches she then turns into models for her sculptures. “I do get some very odd looks sometimes though”, she laughs. ER