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Artist Statements copyright © Susan Seubert "Nest" 2008 With this body of work, I am interested in investigating patterns in nature as well as the use of architecture in terms of instinct. A study of a collection of wild bird nests, "Nest," is a group of twenty-five full plate ambrotypes. The processing artifacts from the wet plate collodion process create emotional characteristics. Swirling lines and apparent surface depth further emphasize the individuality of each structure. That the images themselves are suspended on glass underscores the fragility of each form. "Memento Mori" (Dress-o-Grams) 2005 The title of this series of images, "Memento Mori," comes from the name given to postmortem photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it was popular to photograph the recently deceased. Literally, Memento Mori means, "remember thy mortality." These tintype photograms of dolls and children's dresses appear to have an astonishing amount of volume. The open backs look sensual and feminine but simultaneously empty and void of life. The distressed and runny emulsion makes the lates look antique and adds a painterly quality to the print surface. Because "100 Cheerleaders" 2005 This installation of tintype photograms serves as a meditation on torture and the methodology of controlling human behavior. The title, "100 Cheerleaders," is an ironic reference to the defense in the trial of Charles A. Graner, the convicted Abu Ghraib prison ringleader. Graner's attorney, Mr. Guy Womack, claimed that, "Using naked and hooded detainees to make a human pyramid was much like what cheerleaders all over America do at football games…and putting naked prisoners on leashes was much like what parents do with their toddlers." Mr. Womack is also quoted in The Seattle Times as saying, "in Texas we'd lasso them and drag them out of there." The photographs of the torture victims from Abu Ghraib illustrate many contradictory elements of the War: how the reports have all been very careful to note that the people in the prison were detainees, not prisoners or prisoners of war; how torture, in times of war, becomes easily justifiable for those who engage in it; how, in the absence of finding weapons of mass destruction, the purpose of the War shifted to the rhetoric of the United States as furthering peace and liberation; how responsibility to the Geneva conventions were neatly sidestepped, despite their clear guidelines that expressly prohibit such tactics and, finally, how, as Mr. Graner was quoted as saying, "The Christian in me knows it was wrong, but the corrections officer in me couldn't resist making a man [urinate on] himself." The installation is intended to provide a place and point to contemplate these contradictions and to be faced with the uneasiness of a confrontation by a person who cannot see the viewer, but holds the viewer accountable nonetheless. Education 1992 BFA, Pacific Northwest College of Art Solo exhibitions 2008 Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR (scheduled Sept. 08) 2005 Memento Mori, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2005 One Hundred Cheerleaders, Donald Sheehan Gallery, Walla Walla, WA 2005 Memento Mori, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA 2003 Neurasthenia, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2003 University of Portland, Portland, OR 2002 Fotofest, Mixture Contemporary Art, Houston, TX 2000 Chimeras, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 2000 Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR 1998 Ten Most Popular Places to Dump a Body in the Columbia River Gorge, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 1997 Panphobia, Houston Center for Photography, Gallery X, Houston, TX 1996 Panphobia, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 1996 Violence Objects: YWCA Week Without Violence, Pioneer Place Atrium, Portland, OR 1993 Every Three Seconds, Jamison Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR Group exhibitions 2008 Virtually Mixed for Life, Jumeirah Towers, Dubai, UAE (scheduled) 2008 100 Cheerleaders, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2008 WAR, Guestroom Gallery, Portland, OR 2007 Building Tradition: Contemporary Northwest Art from the Tacoma Art Museum, Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Bellingham, WA 2007 Winter Group Show, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2007 Irqai Extraction (group show), Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2007 Photoing On Car, J Crist Gallery, Boise, ID 2006 Winter Group Show, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2006 Experience, L. Coscino Galllery, Pacific Grove, CA 2006 Group Show, J Crist Gallery, Boise, ID 2006 Le Noir C’est La Vie, Abbaye St. Andre Centre d’Art Contemporain, Meymac, France 2005 Lewis and Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race, and Memory, Paley and Levy Galleries, Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA 2005 Winter Group Show, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2005 Landmark, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR 2005 Black and White Photography, 4 Culture Collection Seattle, WA 2005 Turning Light into Silver, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX 2004 Lewis and Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race, and Memory, Tacoma Art Musuem, Tacoma, WA curator: Rock Hushka, also at the Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, MT 2004 Susan Seubert, New Work, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA 2003 The Female Aim, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA 2003 Crossroads, New Art from the Northwest, Center on Comtemporary Art, Seattle, WA-curator: Michael Klein, Microsoft Collection 2003 Celebrating Women in the Arts- Contemporary Northwest Women Photographers, Juried Exhibition, Frye Museum, Seattle, WA 2003 Pacific NW Photography Now, Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA-curator: Scott Wallin 2003 Building Tradition: Gifts in Honor of the Northwest Art Collection, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington 2003 Art About Agriculture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 2002 Out of the Frame, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA 2002 Terra Infirma, University of Puget Sound- Kittredge Gallery, Tacoma, WA, Curator: Greg Bell 2002 Alumni Exhibition, Feldman Gallery, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR 2002 Small Wonder, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA 2001 Danger, Exit Art, New York City, NY 2001 East Meets West, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2001 The Visual Chronicle of Portland: 1999-2001,Portland Community College-Northview Gallery, Portland, OR 2001 Northwest Narritive: Portland, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR 2001 Northwest Annual, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA. Juror: Michael Sweney 2001 Northwest Visions: Recent Acquisitions, Key Tower Building Gallery, Seattle, WA 2001 Oregon Biennial, Portland Art Museum, Curator: Bruce Gunther (catalog) 2001 Contemporary Photo Gravure, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA 2001 Sextablos, Augen Gallery, Portland, OR, Curator: Michael Hernandez 2001 Guns in the Hands of Artists, Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, Portland, OR 2001 Northwest Photography, Prague House of Photography, Czec Republic (Dec 2001) 2001 New Year, New Work, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA 2001 Winter Group Show, Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR 2000 Oregon's Twentieth Century in Photography, Portland Art Museum - Copeland Gallery, Portland, OR, Curator: Terry Toedtemeier 2000 Gallery Artists, G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA 2000 Wonder Women: 34 Amazing Oregon Women Artists, The Art Gym - Marylhurst University, OR (catalog) 2000 Printwork, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 2000 Open Walls, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR 2000 Winter Group Show, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 1999 Necropolis, Galerie Georges-Philippe et Nathalie Vallois, Paris, France 1999 Oregon Biennial, Portland Art Museum, Curator: Katherine Kanjo (catalog) 1999 Pacific Rim Exhibitions: Portland, Terrain, San Francisco, CA 1999 Newport Biennial, Newport Visual Arts Center, Oregon Coast Council for the Arts, Curator: Kristy Edmunds (catalog) 1999 Portland Photographers, SK Josefsberg Studio, Portland, OR 1999 Plant Forms, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 1999 18th Annual Gender Studies Symposium Art Exhibition, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR, Curator: Ted Vogel 1999 Artists Collect, L&B Viewing Room, Portland, OR, Curator: Nan Curtis 1998 Paper, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 1998 98 Interiors, The Pavilion at the Japanese Gardens, Portland, OR 1997 Observation and Invention: Women Photographers 100 Years After the Photo-Succession, The Art Gym, Marylhurst College, OR, Curator: Terry Hopkins 1997 The Alchemists Backroom, Benham Studio Gallery, Seattle, WA, Curator: Marita Holdway 1997 ZYZZYVA: Portland Black and White, Froelick Adelhart Gallery, Portland, OR 1997 Eye Contact, Bumbershoot, Seattle Center, Seattle, WA Curator: Jill Janow 1997 The Garden Show, Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, Lutz Tire Building No. 2, Portland, OR, Curator: Victoria Beal 1997 Artslate ‘97, CoArts, Condon, OR Curator: Jane Beebe (award) 1996 Pushing Image Paradigms: Conceptual Maneuvers in Recent Photography, Portland 1996 Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR, Curator: Kristy Edmunds 1996 The Tool Show, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR 1996 Bloom, The Heathman, Portland, OR Curator: Elizabeth Leach Gallery 1995 Fifteen Years, Jamison Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR 1995 The Flower Show, Jamison Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR 1995 Resonance, Bush Barn Art Center, Salem, OR 1994 Photo Biennial, Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT (award) 1994 Recent Works, Jamison Thomas Gallery, Portland, OR 1994 Botanical Photographs, Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX 1993 Crosscut, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, Curators: Kristy Edmunds, Terry Toedtemeier, John Weber 1992 Thesis Exhibition, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (award) 1991 AICA New York Studio, New York, NY 1990 Wentz Gallery, Pacific Northwest College of Art |
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