Wilden.herbals meets: Gestures of love. Interview with Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck

It seems like a lifetime since Memories from the Ordinary, Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck ‘s first solo exhibition in Milan. The exhibition, curated by Giulia Giazzoli and Joel Valabraga, took place amidst remnants of September sociality in the pop-up spaces of TENOHA. A meeting place, shop, restaurant and now a reference point for those who always prefer research. Johanna’s was not just an exhibition, however. At TENOHA we got to know her art and could appreciate her research, references and paths. And it was from the Wilden.herbals triad with Johanna Tagada and TENOHA that this interview and our collaboration was born.

Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck’s art is intimate and personal, and more than about people, it seems to be about caring. Gesture is the essential, along with ritual and all the little things that make human nature unique to explore.

French, born in 1990, based in bustling London, Johanna cultivates a physiological need to reconnect with nature as soon as she can. Indeed, when she has a moment to herself, she returns to Alsace. What to most might seem like escapes from the pressing rhythms of production (including artistic production), for the artist are precisely self-prescribed cures, because Johanna of art loves the simple gesture, which only in nature seems for her to find the purest expression.

Painter, sculptor, photographer, filmmaker, the young artist loves the intersection of media, but she does not give up the ritual of creation, that taking shape of an almost spontaneous narrative. At a time when philosopher Byung-chul Han theorizes and puts on paper “the disappearance of rituals,” Johanna starts right from there and from simple gestures of love. Here is her story.

Within the exhibition in Milan are two pieces from the Gestures of Love series: would you like to tell us more about this new series?

It is a series of paintings depicting moments of tenderness and love between people in the form of everyday physical actions. This project of mine started in the spring of 2020 during the first lockdown. I reasoned quite a bit about how to paint these scenes. It is now very clear to me that the urgency to paint these portraits emerged as I was trying out the anti-Covid rules on my own skin for the first time: wearing a mask, avoiding hugs with family and friends, having few social interactions and in a limited way. As the series took shape, I didn’t realize that I was depicting moments that I missed-both in the form of an observer and as a protagonist.

Some of the paintings are memories of ordinary life moments-that I experienced with my husband Jatinder or together with my mother-in-law Bibi. Others are glimpses of other people’s lives that I had observed from a distance and had made me smile: for example, seeing a father holding an infant in Auroville, India, in 2018. I wanted to preserve these gestures as a balm for my memory. Most of the paintings in this series are created with the watercolor painting that has been with me since I was a student.

The tea ceremony is a recurring theme in your poetics. Why is it so important for you to share simple gestures that come from conscious choices?

In my opinion we tend to downplay the value of simple gestures and choices as well as everyday actions. What we choose to buy or eat can have nefarious effects on our planet, but our choices can support community-oriented, respectful and eco-friendly businesses. There are brands with fantastic marketing strategies that play the green card, but I hope more and more government regulations and certification bodies can come into play to reduce this nonsense. I also hope that environmental certifications can be free for small producers who currently have great economic difficulties in certifying their organic products.

Many of us have been in lockdown, I still am too here in England. We should understand that not everyone is blessed with a home and we should act to help others; this moment in history is an incredible opportunity to show ourselves more empathetic more active within our communities. Through social media (which I try to use for no more than 15 minutes a day because it easily engulfs me), I have been able to observe that there are more and more people who like to cook a meal for themselves, choose and buy quality ingredients instead of spending money on low-quality clothes that we don’t need. And then there are more and more people interested in gardening. I think it’s great! Having a conscience and making responsible choices is important, but it is also essential to leave room for spontaneity, others and life in general. That to me is anything but cerebral.

Would you recommend a recipe for herbs and plants (maybe ones you grow in your garden!) that you use for your infusions?

These days I like to mix dried organic sage, which I grew in a container here in England, withdried nettle that I grew in a bucket in my hometown of Alsace. I combine this with organic Gyokuro green tea.

Recently, I had it with a kind of homemade “Chausson aux pommes” (a French puff pastry in the shape of a pocket, ed.) filled with apple compote and cinnamon. The pure pleasure of this dessert is undoubtedly in the combination of flavors and the memories: Japan and friends, England, me buying that sage seedling with my husband Jatinder years ago, then France and my family.

© 2021 Wilden.herbals – Contents are the property of Wilden.herbals S.r.l., reproduction is prohibited. Photo © Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck