"That was part of my fear, and we thought about it a lot," says Johnson of compiling Objects of Desire. "There is a risk [displaying these objects] you create a 'new norm'." To invoke surprise – a feeling of "seeing with new eyes" – they worked hard on the relationship between displayed objects, such as placing de Chirico's Arrivo del trasloco (c 1965) next to a contemporary artwork by Alicja Kwade: "They both offer pin-sharp convincing depictions of reality… But when you look again, you see them in a different light… they can seem unstable, more fantastical than you first thought. Surprising juxtapositions is something the Surrealists tried to create," she says, recalling their "assemblages" – ideas sparked when joining otherwise unrelated items, just as William Burroughs and David Bowie used the "cut-up" technique of writing to create surprising sentences.
