oil on canvas. 30 x 40 inches. 2017
oil on canvas. 34 x 50 inches. 2018
oil on canvas. 31 x 40 inches. 2017
From a distance or in photographs, this body of work is almost impossible to capture accurately in reproduction; the experience of viewing them in person is essential to appreciating and understanding her art. In Bricolage, each brick was painted individually to capture the light. In addition, the ground has multiple layers of dots speckled over to give off the right effect of realism. This painstaking attention to detail is more labor intensive and manual than the initial observation may suggest. Art influences reality in nonlinear, unpredictable ways. The popular images of Disney characters create a world within a world. The characters create a sense of action and movement to the setting that would otherwise seem motionless and lifeless. A common theme found throughout SuSu’s work is capturing movement. Here, we see Pluto taking on the role of action in a sequence of movements that gives life to an immobile setting.
oil on canvas. 31 x 35 inches. 2018
oil on canvas, 50 x 42 inches, 2019
oil on canvas. 32 x 40 inches. 2018
oil on canvas. 72 x 30 inches. 2017
oil on canvas. 50 x 36 inches. 2017
Andy Warhol’s work foreshadows the ease and ubiquity with which we create and consume images in the digital era. Following the groundwork laid by Warhol, SuSu selects images that are well-known and repurposes them. In the age of Google, we are getting used to the speed at which images come at us. They also seem to have shorter life spans and are reproduced to fit capitalistic needs. Susu reflects on this appropriation by taking an iconic image and reformatting it into her own work. In a Life in the Woods, the setting suggests a herd of deer traveling through nature but there is more than meets the eye. Bambi is transformed into a print-like pattern to critically examine culture today. The juxtaposition of identifiable figures in unfamiliar settings draws us in to rethink our preconceived notions of what we thought they represent. The audience is encouraged to not be passive spectators but participants in the scene that is both symbolic and real.
oil on canvas. 36 x 72 inches each panel. 2016
Inauguration consists of an image spread across 5 different panels depicting a grandiose setting at a red carpet event. Breaking up the scene in panels facilitates analyses of the presentation of space, of proximity and distance, and of different types of proportion and perspective. Here, space can be read from every possible point of view a “multiperspective” which frees the viewer’s eyes to imaginatively pursue every possible direction of the painting.
The figures appear in various forms and scale. The celebrities showcased no longer represent a person of their own but a commodity to be consumed. Distortions observed are akin to snap chat filters from a smart phone. The combination of imaginary creatures on top of the celebrities sets the stage on which fiction and reality merge and alludes to the absurd grandeur that is the red carpet. It also adds a coating that invites the viewer to speculate what lies beneath the layers and what may be going on in the mind of the subject.
