Chair Decay

After all the tête-à-têtes these chairs have been privy to, they now decay by the side of the road. On a recent road trip to Louisiana, I deemed the pair worthy of a u-turn in order to document their moldering beauty. Exposed to the elements their upholstered innards have begun to spill and nature fills them. The textures of decay are palpable in the fraying fabrics, weathered wood, touches of rust and puddled stains that riddle the surface. I may or may not have hauled a few scattered bits back to the studio--a distinct possibility that these chairs will live on in an alternate form.

 

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.

New Work

Scions, aluminum, plaster, resin, metal coating, wax

Glandular shapes clustered together in various mediums. Hanging and protruding from an old paint grate and leather bandolier my observation of the drop form continues. New work on my website this week.

Festooned, metal grate, paint, vinyl, wool, beads

Residue, leather, artificial sinew, encaustic wax
 

New Sculpture

Top: Reticulum, metal object & gut
Bottom left: Tumescence, aluminum, plaster, resin, encaustic
Bottom right: Doublet, metal object & gut

I've completed a trio of new sculpture this month. Two of them employ the use of gut--my latest material obsession. The third is a pair of hanging pieces. They are built with an armature of aluminum and plaster then sculpted with resin. Layer upon layer of encaustic paint was fused onto the surface resulting in a luscious but subtle mix of color and texture impossible to capture in an image. Using encaustics on three-dimensional forms is something I will continue to explore.

Gut Reaction

For the past couple months I've been experimenting with a new material--pig intestines. No I didn't harvest the guts of a pig. I bought them from a butcher where they are used as sausage casings. I received them relatively clean and packed in a salt brine. They do have a distinct scent but not a bad as I expected. The first day I played with them I didn't rinse them well enough and my attempts dried with a crusty layer of salt. Now I rinse and double rinse. When I run water through them they balloon and display their fibrous membrane--an exquisite lace pattern.

When the gut is wet it is a bit stretchy and adheres to itself. Pieces can be cut and layered, overlapping slightly to create a bond. When fully dry the gut becomes translucent. It has a skin-like quality which is what attracted me to it in the first place. My curiosity was sparked when I came across an image online of native Alaskan art using seal and pig intestines. Digging around some more I found the work of fiber artist, Pat Hickman--that's when I knew I had to try this material.

Through trial and much error I've been exploring the possibilities of gut. I've layered, molded, stitched, knotted and wound it into and onto various forms. Small studies are laying about the studio--some will be pitched and others pursued.

My Blog

A collection of objects hanging on my studio wall.

With the launch of my new website I've decided to move my blog as well. The archives of my old blog, 2009-2015, will be left intact for you to peruse if you'd like. If you have not done so I'd love for you to join my mailing list. A big thank you to all my faithful readers. I do hope you'll follow along in this new space as I share my work and thoughts on process.

Coin Cunts

Before the days of debit cards the coin purse was a necessary item. Today there are a plethora of these kisslock pockets floating around in flea markets on and off-line. After soliciting friends on social media to assist me in gathering coin purses for this project I got down to business. The purses were cleaned (as needed!) and each one turned inside out. They are made of a variety of fabrics and leather. Some with one layer, others with multiple layers of fabric. I assess each one carefully and after a few pinches, tucks, folds and stitches I say voilà.....a vulva!

Putting images of these transformed coin purses into the world triggers an informative boomerang of ideas, inferred meaning and of course....chuckles. As a collection of objects these coin purses are interesting; as vaginas, they are evocative. I think it was Eva Hesse who said that she used repetition in her art because it recalled the absurdity of life. By eliciting a few changes from a simple object and exaggerating the effect with a grouping of the same, singular but unique objects, I've created a preposterous family of genitalia that speak their own mind.

Are they a simple statement on the variety of vulvae or a call to action against the horrific act of female genital mutilation? Do they comment on the parallel relationship of money and sex, prostitution or the porn industry? How about the age-old ideal of a women's place being solely in the home, subservient to men, caring for home and family?
 

I debated back and forth on whether to dub these transformed purses as 'coin cunts'. I love words, idioms and word pairings and refer to my dictionary often. The word cunt is marked with a 'usage alert' as a vulgar slang and its use is highly taboo in our society. It is a succinct word, it bites and it has baggage. But it is one of those words that truly embodies its meaning....the entirety of the female genitalia....the cunt. All this to say that no other phrase or word seemed to fit this collective grouping better than 'coin cunts.'

A video posted by Suzanna Scott (@suzanna_scott) on Jul 16, 2015 at 8:21am PDT

Thank you to all of you who've supported this project so far by sending purses. If you happen to have any spare kisslock coin purses sitting around in your junk drawer I would love to add them to this collection. I'm particularly looking for ones with colorful purse linings. In fact, I received one with a brilliant red interior as I was photographing the collection for this post. You can contact me here for shipping details. I plan to continue adding purses over the next few months until the proper time and place for their exhibition transpires.

Binding Scissors

Every time I set foot in a thrift shop I tend to find pair or two of used scissors. My attraction to them is not need-based as most of them don't even cut well. I'm collecting them as objects with a past usefulness, handled and worn--a universal tool. My box of scissors has filled over the years and a couple months ago I decided to utilize them in a new project.

 

I'm taking each scissor and binding it tightly with strips of old sari cloth. I chose this material as my paternal family history is tightly bound to the country of India. As the scissors are wrapped they are rendered useless. Only the form remains as a recognizable symbol of its past use. They are now a simple object, a fetish that resembles the phallus. After the scissor is wound with cloth I hand stitch it to prevent unraveling and to lend the tactile nature of sutures to the castrated tool. The scissor is now secure in its mummified form. It has become a phallic symbol of life--scarred yet potent.

This is only the beginning. I continue to pick up scissors and add them to the box with others waiting for a new skin. Since sharing the project on social media I've received more scissors from around the country. A big thank you to everyone who has sent me a pair or two or more! One day I intend to exhibit these fetishes as a collection but for now I will continue to bind a pair a day.

Osmosis

Osmosis, metal, wood, artificial sinew, wax

The core of this piece is a primitive, hand punched cabbage shredder that I bought at a flea market eleven years ago in Mobile, Alabama. I wanted to reverse the outside-in motion of shredding with a sieve-like flow of inside-out. Instead of the act of tearing apart, a reversal to the current of a life-giving stream. When you run your fingers through the strands the movement of the weighted sinew is satisfying. Creating this wall piece was a mesmerizing process. First there was the repetitive cutting, knotting and stringing of the sinew. Next came the dip/wait, dip/wait, dip/wait as each layer of wax hardened. The tip of each strand slowly building up with wax to a small sperm-like form. I've been lovingly referring to this piece as the 'hairy one'.

Futurity

Futurity, wood stirrup, metal, resin & encaustic

I'm attracted to the form of the drop and its visual weight. Much is hidden within a drop. It can be life-giving or signify disaster. A drop of water. A drop of blood. A drop of semen. As part of the whole it can cause destruction. It gushes. It will bring on a flood. Yet a single drop is also powerful and life changing. A teardrop can speak volumes or silently witness a turn of events. A drop of semen can spawn life both wanted and unwanted. Inside a cave water drips steadily, over the span of time creating otherworldly scenes. Its qualities are beautiful and build to a crescendo of life and death.