Susan Morris

Susan Morris (*1962) studied at Birmingham School of Art
and Goldsmiths, University of London. PhD: On the Blank, Photography, Writing, Drawing, University of the Arts London, 2007. Morris is an artist who also writes. Her work engages with periodicity and the involuntary mark, either through a diaristic form of writing or by diagrammatic works generated from data recorded by devices worn on the body. Recent solo shows include Kunsthaus Centre d'art Pasquart, Switzerland, Bartha Contemporary, London, recent group shows include Schierke Seinecke Gallery, Frankfurt, Falko Alexander, Cologne, Kunstraum Alexander Bürkle, Freiburg, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice, CEAAC, Strasbourg, ERES-Stiftung Munich, Valentines, Los Angeles, Scheublein + Bak, Zürich, Kunsthaus Hamburg, and Ormston House, Limerick, Ireland.  She is the co-editor, with Rye Dag Holmboe, of On Boredom: Essays in Art and Writing (UCL Press: 2021). In 2019 she curated the exhibition A Day’s Work at SKK Soest, Germany. In 2020 she won a competition for the new library and study centre at St John’s College, University of Oxford. Morris has won various arts council awards including, in 2010, a Wellcome Trust grant for the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. She is represented by Bartha Contemporary, London. Susan Morris lives and works in London, UK.

 

 

Link: www.susanmorris.com, actively participating member from 2019 to 2022 and continuing to be friend of the project

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Morris: Motion Capture Drawing [ERSD]: View From Above, Archival inkjet on Hahnemühle paper, 150x250 cm, 2012, Courtesy Bartha Contemporary, London

 

 

"I have chosen to work with various forms of digital technology to produce works that record a body living in a northern European city during a period of high capitalism – i.e. with not much natural light but with 24/7 working practices that need artificial lighting and that are governed by man made, artificial, systems such as clock and calendrical time. I do this in order to comment on these systems and the effect they have on us as human subjects."

Quote: Susan Morris

 

 

 

Susan Morris has been working with tracking devices worn on her body for well over a decade. For example, she wore an Acti-Watch (which records sleep/wake patterns) continuously for 5 years. The data for Motion Capture Drawing (ERSD): View From Above was recorded in a motion capture studio. Here Morris wore reflectors on various points of her body (such as the hands, head and back) that recorded the movements she made while working on an analogue drawing using pigment on paper over a period of two days. The resulting file tracked coordinates in 3-D, but Morris choose to output three different 2-D aspects of these: a side view, front view and a view from above (the latter is shown in the present exhibition). Each ‘movement diagram’ is printed out, to scale, as large-format ink-jets showing white lines on a black background. Yet only the black is printed here - the line itself remains unprinted negative space. Although at first glance Morris‘s work does not display any ‘photographic’ characteristics such as representationality, she claims that the piece carries distinct indexical aspects under digital conditions. Morris has created and visualized a precise, digital, ‘trace’ which perfectly reproduces all movements executed over the time of the recording in 3D.

Text: Michael Reisch

 

 

 

 

 

Susan Morris: SunDial:NightWatch_Sleep/Wake 2010-2014 (MLS Version) Jacquard Tapestry: Silk and cotton yarns 134x178,5 cm 2015

 

 

Susan Morris: SunDial:NightWatch_Activity and Light 2010-2012 (Herringbone Weave) Jacquard tapestry: silk and cotton yarn 130x312 cm 2017