Photo by Malin Bengts
My work begins with something small — a word, a mark, an image — and repetition takes it apart.
I'm interested in reduction: how little is needed for something to still read as meaningful, and how much repetition it takes before that meaning wears away. A word said too many times stops sounding like language. An image run through the same process enough times stops looking like a photograph. What's left in both cases is residue — rhythm, pressure, structure — rather than the thing itself.
That process now runs through code. Whatever the material — a photograph, a word, a single letter — it's separated into color, broken into a grid of dots, then degraded by a system I built and run the same way every time. The result can look like error. It isn't — it's a decision to let something come apart on purpose.
Minimalism, to me, isn't about having less to look at. It's about trusting one small unit — a word, a dot, a line — enough to let it carry the whole piece once everything else has been stripped away.
The system is mine. Every rule it follows, I decided.
Bio
Johnny Ramstedt has exhibited internationally since 1999, including Volta Art Fair Basel and group exhibitions in Miami, New York, and London. His work is held in private and corporate collections in Finland and internationally.
For inquiries: jr@johnnyramstedt.com