Meet the artist // Elizabeth Littlejohn
Elizabeth Littlejohn is an artist from Toronto, who has been a resident artists at GlogauAIR from July to September 2022. This interview is the result of a conversation between Savanna Fortgang and the artist that took place during September 2022 in the residency.
Savanna: What do you do as an artist? What is your process? Why do you create the art that you do – what are overarching themes in your artwork?
Elizabeth: I work in documentary film, augmented reality and photojournalism. I love cities, so I work as a visual researcher to analyze and document them. My particular area of interests are the housing crisis, climate disruption, and the overlooked, historical artifacts within cities.
S: How has your work evolved since being here at GlogauAIR? How has GlogauAIR changed your practice?
E: Being in Berlin has broadened my understanding of international housing issues in cities, and displacement through war and climate disruption. I have studied Berlin since I was a child, so being here, and studying a city with such a complex and multilayered history has been utterly captivating.
S: What’s next for you? Where do you see yourself going as an artist?
E: I would like to continue the project I began at GlogauAIR, and expand it into a short documentary.
S: How did your artist journey begin?
E: I have studied drawing since I was twelve years old, and I have studied in Montréal, New York City, and Toronto. I now teach augmented reality, social innovation, sustainable design, and animation.
S: Do you find art residencies important?
E: Very. Art residencies enable an international, multigenerational community to meet over time in an intentional community, and share artistic strategies, different cultures, and help each other produce art. They are an incubator for brainstorming and supportive networking.
S: What does your art process look like? How does it connect with you and the art you make?
E: I spend many hours on my bicycle, collecting images, footage, and photogrammetry scans to add to my augmented-reality locales, posters, and stickers. Documenting Berlin has informed much of my work, and my time in Berlin has been incredible. It truly is the ‘never-ending city’.
