UK, Goldsmiths College (London)
Fall 2013 & Spring 2014 Program Participant
Final Project Statement “Studio Compositions III-V“
When an object achieves a certain abstraction of form, it becomes silent, removed from its purpose. In its muteness, an object can adopt, but equally cast off, the identities we project onto it. The object’s significance lies in its potential to both sit within and transcend the contexts we construct.
My research takes the form of collecting the cast-offs produced by Siena; broken sections of picture frames, chunks of brick or plaster that have come away from a larger structure, a displaced faux-marble tile. I believe that in making artwork that draws from the heritage of an area, it can transcend its significance for the artist. If the viewer recognises a certain texture, shade or shape that appears in a work, the piece automatically becomes readable not just in its own narrow setting, but through a much wider cultural context.
Working with objects and materials sourced directly from the city, my ‘Studio Compositions’, draw on the relationships we perceive based on colour, surface and form. In the repetition and mirroring of these formal qualities lies the potential to subvert; ultimately achieving an abstraction whereby the object can transcend definition.
“Retreat from Reality” 6-week Project Unit:
Work-in-Progress from first studio exercise “Sight, Site & Seriality”
Intro Unit, Week 3: “Tempo Zulu” Project
For her “Tempo Zulu” project, Susie chose to respond to the location of the old psychiatric hospital in Siena (now a university).
Intro Unit, Week 2: “Mapping and Archiving” Project
For her Mapping & Exploring Project in week 2, Susie presented documentation of a performance: placing lit candles around the city, in response to the legacy of Catholic miracles reported in Siena.
Intro Unit, Week 1: “Out of the Gates” Project
In the first week of the program, for her “Out of the Gates” project, Susie responded to the location of Porta Giustizia though casting in plaster crevices which she discovered along the path to the gate from the school.
Siena Art Institute Blog 