there are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see, 2024

Mixed media

85 cm x 185 cm x 35 cm

Olivia Johnston (b. 1991) is a queer and chronically ill artist and art historian living in Ottawa, Canada. Her visual arts practice consists of two core facets: one being an exploration of chronic illness and trauma, the other being an exploration of sacredness and its role in contemporary life. Working across mediums including photography, found object installation, and new media sculpture, she uses her artistic practice as a means to explore social issues, practices of representation, and the boundaries and biases within her own and others’ belief systems. 

In there are cathedrals everywhere for those with the eyes to see, Johnston has created a shrine to life as a queer, femme, chronically ill and “terminally online” woman. Using objects sourced from her explorations around Berlin since early April, objects brought from home, images created at glogauAIR and years ago, printed memes, and hand-made polymer clay figurines of the virgin mary, the artist explores questions around gender, femininity, sexuality, the internet, the body, identity, trauma, grief, iconography and more.