Johannes (Johnny) Geppert is a Surry Hills-based artist. His studio-gallery on Crown Street, Collage Atelier, is open for exhibitions as well as weekly workshops in drawing, painting and collage. In this first of three articles, Johnny recounts a renewal of artistic passion.
It was years ago, let’s just say I was in a rough patch … and I ended up back in my old student house, which is a share house in Bondi Junction. I said to my mate there, “I’m sorry, I have this really bad situation at the moment, I need somewhere to stay.” My friend said, “Johnny, you can live in this old basement room, that’s all I can do at the moment.”
And I had another mate with a removal business, he helped me out as well, to bring all my stuff into this tiny, tiny basement room, and all my life’s belongings were in boxes. I was just so exhausted from my situation and the boxes almost filled the room so I had to walk through the boxes, over this mouldy mattress. I remember thinking, “I just want to sleep for now.”
I woke up in the morning and I realised I’m 40 years old, I have no money, I’m in this little room with all my boxes full and that’s it. I’ve got no job …
And then I opened one box and it had some old magazines in there … fabrics and materials … and I sort of strung a line along the wall from one end to the other. And then I sat on this mouldy, smelly mattress and I looked at it and I was like, “Wow, all I want is to create. I can’t wait to assemble this into an artwork and go out to an old vintage shop or market and find new materials which are cheap – a dollar for this old magazine, a little bit of fabric …” And I said, “This is unbelievable, how powerful is art!”
I loved art before, and making it. You learn the language of art as well, in terms of composition and materials, so it becomes just a really fun thing to find the components. A bit like Indiana Jones, going to the jungle, finding certain things. You’re in the city and you’re going to certain shops, you pick up stuff from the street, you find things in second-hand shops or at markets and you really learn how these fabrics and textures and colours go together.
Once you’ve learned that language and you understand it, the work becomes so rich because it’s full of texture, full of colours, and you can’t wait to find these materials and just put them together, and that fulfils your life. Like when you’re a child and you’ve got a skateboard and you want to learn that trick and everybody’s like, all the grown-ups or everybody else, are like, oh, they talk about cars and wealth and things, and this kid is like, “I just want to learn this trick, I’m happy!”
Collage Atelier, 558 Crown Street, Surry Hills
Thu-Fri 4-9pm; Sat-Sun 4-7pm
www.collageatelier.com
DM @collage_atelier
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Read An anchor in life – an interview with Johannes Geppert (#2)
