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Johanna Calle
Suburbia 1, Espinca bifida #3, Laconista7

Calle’s drawings all inhabit received forms but alter them to call attention to specific qualities. A newspaper is both reproduced and modified to call attention to the newspaper as a means of information transmission. This also emphasizes the effect of various seemingly unimportant support mechanisms: the role of visual layout and images. In other drawings Calle explores systems: the unfurling of suburban streets, resembling text and the veins on a leaf. These congruences point to the unity of Calle’s thematic interests: the circulation of information, human energies, and lives.

Johanna Calle’s drawings use pre-existing systems to explore issues of built space, cultural identity, and language. Her work often departs from common lines of handwriting, altering them with energy and pattern. The practice of drawing is considered expansively in Calle’s work, as she inserts stitching, metal, and even, returning to her background as a painter, the covering capacity of paint.