Testing Ground: Johanna Leech

Artist Johanna Leech is taking over CCA’s Project Space for a month as part of Testing Ground, CCA x Jerwood = Supports, to try out new ideas and take risks with her practice. 

Johanna aims to create a fun and immersive display in CCA’s project space showcasing her discoveries of the often bizarre spectacles of ‘World’s Fairs’.  She will blend humour with analysis, showcasing archive film, mockups, objects and images to create a growing installation. 

The World’s Fairs were meant to showcase the pinnacle achievements of societies and revolutionary technologies, but these imagined futures and grandiose structures were temporary constructs, often just smoke and mirrors. These massive spectacles wowed the World and inspired the public’s imagination, only to crumble months later - how do they hold up today? 

This is supported by Jerwood Foundation and the National Lottery through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.