Tzipporah Johnston (ArtWorks Together)
Tzipporah Johnston is exhibiting as part of the ArtWorks Together International Exhibition 2023 running from August 30th - September 24th at Wentworth Woodhouse, Rotherham.
Tzipporah is an embroiderer and mixed media textile artist based in Edinburgh. She makes three-dimensional embroidered pieces that explore the complexities of autistic experience, addressing both its challenges and joys.
Artworks Together is a non profit creative arts organisation in South Yorkshire, inspiring and supporting adults with learning disabilities, autism or both to achieve their full artistic potential and develop important life skills through creative workshops and placements. At YVAN, we have partnered with ArtWorks Together to support the International Exhibition in Rotherham. You can also view it virtually here.
Can you tell us a bit about the piece of work you're exhibiting as part of the ArtWorks Together International Exhibition 2023?
The Venus Eye Trap is about my difficulty with eye contact. For me eye contact is so intense, it’s like getting an electric shock. I guess with this piece I’m trying to make eye contact as uncomfortable for everyone else as it is for me.
Why do you create?
There is an element of compulsion about it. I’ve always created. But also, I think particularly with embroidery there is something monotropic* about the repetition. You’re working stitch by stitch and you just lose yourself in this feeling of “flow”. Embroidery soothes my brain in a way nothing else does.
* Monotropism is the tendency of autistic brains to focus intensely on one thing at a time.
Do you consider yourself to be part of an artist network/community, and if so, how does this impact your practice?
I never really found an artist community where I fitted in, so I made my own - I was one of the founders of Neuk Collective and I still run it, and our parent CIC, Door in the Wall Arts Access. It’s enriching to spend time with other neurodivergent artists.
What changes would you like to see in the arts sector?
We wrote a manifesto on the subject! https://neukcollective.co.uk/manifesto/
Fundamentally though, the sector depends on networking/connections, unpaid labour, precarity, and a frenetic pace of work – all of which particularly exclude disabled/neurodivergent artists. We need fair work, realistic timescales, and for the sector to see disabled artists as assets rather than inconveniences.