Playing With Scissors

Thought I'd share a few images of my Bound Scissors out in the wild. Playing with scissors is a safe activity as long as they're bound and stitched up tight! I'm pleased that this interactive piece has now been exhibited in three venues, a year ago in Touch: Interactive Craft, this past January in Material As Medium, and this weekend as part of Play, an all media exhibition at the SAA Collective in Springfield, Illinois. 

The exhibition Play was juried by Bob Dixon, an ceramicist and retired professor from Benedictine University. Play is the spontaneous, unstructured time found to foster creativity and problem-solving skills. As we grow up we tend to trivialize play and relegate it to childhood, but it’s an important element of life at any age. The exhibit features work not only about play in the traditional sense, but also the idea of being in the moment, of inspiring wonder, of invoking your natural curiosity. The viewers are encouraged to interact and play with many of the pieces on exhibit.

PLAY: All Media Exhibition

SAA Collective / H.D. Smith Gallery / Springfield, IL

March 10 - 31, 2017 

Opening reception March 11 / 5:30 - 7:30 pm

Participating artists: Bruce Alves, Lex Archibald, Piety Choi, Betsy Dollar, Lauren Feret, Cathy Ganschinietz, John Hayes, Tessa Martinez, Corrin Smithson McWhirter, Beth Rodgers, Suzanna Scott

Thank you to all of you who've shared your images of Bound Scissors via social media. #boundscissorproject

 

Image by Adele Stuckey

Image by Leslie Mounaime

Image by Katie Riggs

Image by Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts

Image by Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts

Duality of Feminine

My grouping of red (and a few purple) Coin Cunts will be on view during the month of March at Gallery 66 NY in Cold Spring, New York. The exhibition, Duality of Feminine and Feminist, was juried by artist/curator Karen Gutfreund. These are some of the questions the artists were asked to ponder:

Endless news cycles emphasize the fragmentary nature of our present society and a divided nations’ opposition to a single logic or subject. With this in mind, how do women balance the duality of feminine and feminist? Should we be concerned with the manner in which a woman is portrayed as strong and/or feminine? In recent cultural movements, the ramifications of mixed gender attributes seemed to be growing in popularity yet with the recent elections and threats to women’s rights in particular, are we going backwards. This ability to carry the strengths of both genders is empowering but are we now dealing with a backlash? Is the current political atmosphere an attempt to return to the stereotypical view of women as submissive and passive?

Artworks in the Duality of Feminine and Feminist exhibit are varied with works on paper, glass, collage, porcelain, photography, painting, fabric, assemblage, appropriated imagery and mixed media, with messages just as varied.  The artists participating in this exhibit are from across the nation and include works by Torey Akers, Audrey Bernstein, Sarah Eagen, Sally Edelstein, Leslie Fandrich, Morgan Ford Willingham, Colleen Gahrmann, Lucy Julia Hale, Amy Hughes, Marie-Laure Ilie, Blond Jenny, Joan Lesikin, Lisa Levart, Sally Ann McKinsey Sisk, Jillian Nalty, Landon Newton, Antonella Piemontese, Jessica Putnam-Phillips, Suzanna Scott, Samantha Senack, Rosalind Shaffer, Allegra Shunk, Susan Singer, Dafna Steinberg, Gail Stouffer, Terrill Warrenburg, Jennifer Weigel, Galelyn Williams and Meghan Willis.

 Duality of Feminine and Feminist
Gallery 66 NY / Cold Spring, NY
March 3rd – April 2nd
Opening reception, March 3rd 6-9pm

Wage On!

WAGE ON! Women, Art, and Money will be the featured national exhibition of the 2017 Women’s Caucus for Art national conference in New York City. Hosted at Ceres Gallery, the exhibition offers a timely opportunity to address the impact of a changing political and economic landscape on women and art through the lens of twenty artists selected by juror Helga Christoffersen, an assistant curator at the New Museum. As she remarked: 

I looked to works that took on issues of woman’s work, rights, and identity today, in ways that speak to fundamental underlying issues in our society that affect us all. This exhibition is an important initiative and an example of a way to bring together a broad range of voices, opinions, and practices under a united and urgent cause.

My grouping of fourteen 'Coin Cunts' was selected to be included in the exhibition which runs through February 25th.

Participating Artists: Torey Akers, Judy Ballance, Veronica Ceci, Pauline Chernichaw, Dorit Jordan Dotan, Palmer Earl, Christine Giancola, Julia Gutman, J.J. L’Heureux, Jessica Mieles, Katy Mixon, B St. Marie Nelson, Suzanna Scott, Ember Small, Genevieve Walker, Leslie Wallstedt, Jill Waterhouse, Anna Watson, Heather Weathers and Diana Zipeto

WAGE ON! Women, Art, and Money

January 31 – February 25,  2017

Ceres Gallery, New York City

Tuesday – Sunday, 12-6pm

WCA will host public Artists Reception on Thursday, February 16 from 6-8 pm. A full-color catalogue will accompany the exhibition and is available for purchase here.

About the Women's Caucus For Art: Founded in 1972, the Women's Caucus For Art is the leading national organization for women engaged in the visual arts professions, an affiliated society of the College Art Association, a founding partner of The Feminist Art Project and a United Nations NGO. The mission of the Women's Caucus for Art is to create community through art, education, and social activism.

Encaustic Sculpture

 

Tangents, aluminum foil, plaster, encaustic, leather harness

During the second half of last year I spent a good deal of time experimenting with encaustic paint on three dimensional surfaces. Out of this process two finished works emerged and I've finally gotten around to photographing them for the website. This Spring I'll set up my window box fan to expel those pesky wax fumes and get to work on some more of these encaustic sculptures.

Convolution, epoxy resin, plaster, encaustic, artificial sinew, fabric, chain, fishing weight

 

Material as Medium

I'm pleased to have two fiber works included in Material as Medium at the Target Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. My tactile collection of Bound Scissors and recent wall sculpture, Lifeline will be on display along with the work of fifteen other fiber artists. The exhibition explores the future of contemporary fiber and textile art using traditional materials in a new context, or unconventional materials in a more traditional form. The juror for this exhibition is Aaron McIntosh.

Material as Medium

Torpedo Factory / Target Gallery

December 3, 2016 - January 15, 2017

Reception: Thursday, December 8th, 6 – 8pm / Juror Talk at 7pm

Participating fiber artists:

Meg Arsenovic, Richmond, VA

Emma Balder, Denver, CO

Diana Baumbach, Laramie, WY

Arisa Brown, Everett, WA

Danielle Burke, Black Mountain, NC

Brooks Dierdorff, Orlando, FL

Julia Gartrell, Durham, NC

Lindsay Hall, Arlington, VA

Krista Heinitz, Eugene, OR

Hannah Hiaasen, Brooklyn, NY

Kathleen Kennedy, Mechanicsville, VA

Tiffany Lange, Menomonie, WI

Matthew Paulson, Rockaway Beach, NY

Suzanna Scott, Ruston, LA

Meaghan Westfall, Rock Hill, SC

Katie Westmoreland, Brooklyn, NY

New Print

In light of recent political events here in the United States my series of 'Coin Cunts' has continued to gain interest and raise awareness of women's issues on many different fronts. I am continuing to seek out used kisslock coin purses with colorful and/or interesting interiors to grow the collection. As of its last installation this past summer it numbered over 100 pieces! 

This image is now available as a limited edition, poster-sized pigment print in my webshop. Its proceeds will be used to fund the growth of this project and its exhibition. You can purchase the new print here.

Shafts & Glands

An evolution of glandular shapes and biomorphic shafts, this family of Fiber Forms has been reproducing, and I've added several new ones to the website. 

I am thinking of the intricate web in/of our reproductive bodies and throughout the natural world. A tangle of coital life, I explore the animate and inanimate alike--whether ovaries, stamens, mammary glands or ancient fertility fetishes, modern sex toys and contraceptive devices. 

Through these forms I seek to meld the visual pleasures of knots and knobs with the endless labyrinth of time and sensual memory through repetitive twisting, wrapping and stitching. 

Read more about the process of creating these Fiber Forms.

Reform: Subversive Fashion

Last month, before our move, I finished stitching over 100 'Coin Cunts' and shipped them off to Albuquerque, NM. They will be included, along with work by four other artists, in an exciting counter-culture fashion exhibition opening Friday at Central Features Contemporary Art. This will be the largest installation of the 'Coin Cunts' thus far. 

Missouri-based artist Suzanna Scott challenges visual and societal perceptions with Coin Cunts, a collection of coin purses. By turning each purse inside out to reveal and reform the different interior linings, Scott teases the imagination and sparks conversation about the ties amongst sexuality, gender, money, and fashion. 

 Nancy Zastudil, Central Features Contemporary Art

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on Aug 23, 2016 at 8:24am PDT

Contemporary fashion is in question and on display this Fall season at Central Features Contemporary Art. Cross programming and promotion is presented in conjunction with the exhibition ReFashion at form & concept in Santa Fe, NM. ReForm: Subversive Fashion is an exhibition of select garments, accessories, and other adornments that thwart conventional expectations. The exhibition features JUMPSUIT by The Rational Dress Society, an installation by Suzanna Scott, an interactive dress by Nina Silfverberg, collages by Kirsten Stolle, and new textile work by Sarah Wagner. 

Reform: Subversive Fashion

August 26 - September 30

Central Features Contemporary Art

514 Central Ave SW #2, Albuquerque, NM

Opening Reception on Aug 26th, 6-8pm

Fiber Options

Cheese Box of Vulvas by Susan Hensel and Plexus by Suzanna Scott

I'm pleased to share that one of my fiber pieces, Plexus, is included in the exhibition Fiber Options: Material Explorations at the Maryland Federation of the Arts Circle Gallery. The show is comprised of seventy-two works using fiber in varied range of material and application. It is a wonderful collection of contemporary fiber works.

Fiber Options: Material Explorations

MFA Circle Gallery

Annapolis, Maryland

July 14 - August 6

Opening Reception: July 24th, 3-5 pm

 

Getting To Quiet by Laurie LeBreton

From hand-knit pieces felted into sculptural monuments to video monitors shrouded in hooded sweatshirts, the options in fiber are limitless. Combining an array of materials, both traditional and unexpected, with historic to digital techniques, the artists of Fiber Options: Material Exploration exhibit artistry, innovation, and emotion. Precisely pieced quilts, meticulously knotted vessels, and delicately dyed silks are a few examples of the supreme skill and dexterity employed over countless hours by these artists. Oftentimes, several skills appear in a singular piece: stitched still lifes on hand-dyed cotton or fabric and thread encased in encaustic, all demonstrate supreme artistry.

Innovation commingles with tradition in a quilt deliberately severed into quadrants or sweetly stitched flowers paired with a expertly embroidered dead cockroach. Several artists reinvent conventional notions of fiber art by including unexpected materials. Typewriter ribbon and VHS cassette tape replace wool and linen in woven constructions. Fiber is no longer precious with roofing nails driven into silk and sticks set afire dangerously near hand-painted ropes. Technological advances provide artists with the ability to print on fabrics and digitize embroidery, opening up new options in the world of fiber.

Beyond the tangible, emotion and character can be observed in the stab of the needle, throw of the weaving shuttle, submersion of fabric into dye, and sometimes, sorrow and devastation literally spill forth onto the floor. Steadfast resolve surfaces in a hyper-realistic embroidered black eye while vulnerability lingers in a threadbare cloth. Clothing carries deep-rooted symbolism—a hooded sweatshirt, a bridal veil, a Hijab—and immediately conjure a range of emotions and viewpoints.

Fiber speaks to us in so many ways. It can be intricately detailed or all encompassing, traditionally constructed or surprisingly innovative, intimately displayed or globally outspoken. The options in fiber are endless.

Susanna Fields-Kuehl, juror

Big Flower by Lisa Marie Barber

Collecting Words

Every sketchbook is assigned a page for collecting words I find interesting for one reason or another. Sometimes it's a new word I've never come across before, a familiar word with an obscure alternate meaning, or a word that has inferred reference to a current topic of interest. At one time I had over a dozen dictionaries in my studio in a variety of languages to peruse, but now an app on my trusty phone has replaced the need for all but three--one in English, an antique illustrated French volume that's been partially plundered for collage and this wonderful pictorial edition. I love to mull over the scrawled jumble of words, and when I finish a new piece I pluck one off the page to give the object its 'Title'.

Coin Cunt Print

The 'Coin Cunt' project began innocently last summer when I was playing around with an old coin purse. I flipped it inside out, and saw a vaginal form emerge from my playful pinching and tucking. Using a needle and thread I stitched it into place. As I thought about it, I found so much association between the little pocket-like forms and the inferred suggestions that these new objects brought to mind.

I began sharing the 'Coin Cunts' on social media and am amazed at the feedback it has provided. With a simple alteration these ubiquitous objects became evocative and their appeal provocative when I dubbed them 'Coin Cunts'. Aside from the chuckles, I've found that others can see in this project our assumed cultural associations of money and women, prostitution, female genital mutilation, suppression of women, gender equality, body image ideals, equal pay and the list continues to grow.

Ever since the 'Coin Cunt' images began making their rounds on social media I've had to turn down numerous purchase requests. My goal with this project is to grow the collection until I have a large installation of 100 or more. In order finance the rest of this project and give you an opportunity to enjoy this image on a daily basis I'm offering a limited edition of 25 pigment prints on my website.

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on May 24, 2016 at 7:55am PDT

Quicksand

Josh Stone, SV#3B, 2015, HD Video.

Another venue for a second grouping of my Coin Cunts presented itself this month: QUICKSAND, a pop-up exhibit at the New Art Center in Newton, MA, features work that disrupts expectation by erasing, covering, and fracturing the human form, asking broader questions about the spectrum of cultural visibility. Through the lens of a fragmentary experience, the body becomes an allusion, goes missing, or is present as a mere impression. The figure on view here is unstable, like quicksand, and contends with the boundaries of identity, territory, and the negation of the body through technology. 

Quicksand

April 29 - May 8, 2016

A MassArt Production at The New Art Center, Newton MA

Reception: Friday April 29th, 6pm-8pm

Featured artists include Salome Asega, Casey Ausman, Bashezo, AK Burns, Carlos Jimenez Cahua, Caleb Cole, Furen Dai, Allison M. Disher, Janet Loren Hill, Pope L., Curtis Mann, Susan Metrican, Alyssa Minahan, Landon Newton, Diana Jean Puglisi, John Robert Roy, Suzanna Scott, Corinne Spencer, Josh Stone, Triiibe, Xtina Wang, Xu Wang, Joe Zane

The exhibit has been organized by the Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Graduate Seminar in Curatorial Practice class taught by Dina Deitsch.

Crazy Quilts

Last summer I picked up a pile of unfinished crazy quilt squares at the flea market. A bit musty and stained, they'd definitely seen a few idle decades. I decided to emphasize the aged backsides of these patchwork squares by carefully slicing into them to expose their insides. The coloring on the reverse is subtle; stains are visible, and you can trace the map-like stitches where each piece has been quilted. Each scar that I add is carefully marked, cut and stitched into place with black thread. Fresh wounds are now scattered among the hints of stitches left by another pair of laboring hands years ago.

The Female Complex

My Coin Cunt collection has taken on a life of its own thanks to the wonders of social media. I've been invited by artist, Kristin Mahan to participate in The Female Complex at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where these twenty-eight fiber pieces will be making their debut. The vaginal shaped works are sculpted from inside-out coin purses.

Feminism is nothing new-it has been around for more than a century-so why is it still so important to this day? As society progresses and the older waves of feminism accomplish much of what they set out to do, problems that were always there but never dealt with have begun to rise to the surface. "The Female Complex" will present the multiplicity of the emerging wave of feminism through contemporary art. Each of the 12 artists presented uses personal experiences to inform their work, which allows the work to be honest. The wide variety of mediums and subject matter in this exhibition will form a dialogue that reflects the diversity of issues placed under the umbrella of this developing feminist movement. 

Kristin Mahan, curator

Participating artists include Samantha Aasen, Brooke Denton, Jeanne Donegan, Tessa Edgren, Lisa Guevara, Sheree Haynie, Katie Hovencamp, Kayla Linden, Roberta Malkin, Sidney Mullis, Claudia Rose, and Suzanna Scott. 

The Female Complex

Curated by Kristin Mahan

MEDICI Gallery / Richards Hall

Monday, April 18

Closing Reception April 22 / 5-7 pm

Ignoble In Between

Six of my Fiber Forms were selected by artist Mandy Cano Villalobos to be included in an exhibition at a SiTE:LAB event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The exhibit, Ignoble in Between is based upon the mundane gaps that occupy the space between when we are born and when we die, the exhibition exploring the idea of beauty as a by-product of happenstance.

Though we long for the heroic, for our friends and followers to “like” (or heart) our significant contributions to internet society, though we yearn for some sort of affirmation that we really matter within the larger context, it is everyday tedium that dominates our time. Our days are filled with to-do lists, dirty clothes, longings that will never be fulfilled, and bad breath. The artists of Ignoble in Between embrace the mundane passage of time, reveling in transient thoughts and physical decay, with happenstantially beautiful results.

Mandy Cano Villalobos, curator

Ignoble in Between will feature the work of nine artists and is one of six simultaneous exhibits in the unique setting of abandoned auto shop garage bays. The Auto Shop shows are part of a larger joint venture, called the Rumsey Street Project, between the volunteer art organization known as SiTE:LAB and Habitat for Humanity which finds under-utilized buildings and transforms them into art projects.

Ignoble in Between 
Curated by Mandy Cano Villalobos 

Carlos Aceves, Erin Curry, Molly Kaderka, Andy Kincaid, 
Billy Mayer, Dennis Ritter, Suzanna Scott, Soo Shin, Danielle Wyckoff

SiTE:LAB Auto Shop 

333 Rumsey St SW, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Saturday, April 9th, 12-9pm

Women In The Arts

My sculpture, Raw Guts, will be included in the 23rd annual Women in the Arts show highlighting the work of sixteen talented women artists. In conjunction with Women’s History Month at the University of Missouri, the Craft Studio presents this exhibit as a tribute to women, past, present, and future whose artistic creations are often overlooked and forgotten.

The artists of this exhibition have, like all good artists, made what they know. Their experiences, methods, and styles are diverse and lovely. Georgia O’Keeffe wrote, “I find that I have painted my life, things happening in my life – without knowing it.” I am encouraged and impressed that the women showing work here have dealt boldly with the imagery of their lives.

-Hannah Reeves, Juror

Women In The Arts 2016

Monday, February 29th – Friday, March 25th

Reception: Thursday, March 3rd, 4 pm– 6pm

Fiber Forms

A collection of fiber forms has been slowly evolving in my studio. The core of each one is made using a common household material--aluminum foil. Once the skeleton is constructed I wrap it with layer upon layer of fabric, lace and string. These bound layers are pinned into place until I'm satisfied with its shape, color and texture. During the tedious process of stitching I let go of time and enjoy the meditative process of slowly marking the surface with stitches and securing the layers of each cocoon. On a few of the pieces I've sculpted glandular caps out of resin. After they are finished with a brass metal coating these accents add visual contrast to the stitched surface. So far I've completed thirteen of these intimate fiber forms and I invite you to take a peek.

Material Remnants

Many times I discover small revelations in material remnants. I resist the urge to sweep leftovers into the trash bin immediately following a project. These remains often contains clues and can trigger new ideas through their shape/color/texture, etc. I'm interested in these secrets and find value in documenting the beauty of residue.