When I listen to David Lang’s Just or sit in front of one of Sophie Calle’s images, I am puzzled by how it works on me, resonating deeply. I have my moment of anticipation and desire, then waves of pleasure and liquid thought. Art is filled with those moments and questions. When millions of people pay and wait in lines at museums, to view inanimate objects on walls in large empty spaces, there is no obvious transactional exchange, no financial gain, no concrete exchange of money for food or clothing. But clearly desire is afoot and an expectation that art will “work”, as an agent of desire, or make sense of a moment, or throw a wrench in how we view our worlds. And then there’s the personal: the working as an artist: whether starting from an image or working a concept into a visual/ sound piece, the process of making art is one of possibilities, making sense of the moment and the possibility of being an agent of change.
About
Susan Salinger has worked for more than 40 years as an artist, dancer, choreographer, and photographer. Her artwork, performance work, and installations have been exhibited and performed across the United States in museums, galleries, and performance art theaters such as MoMA P.S. 1, The Downtown Whitney Museum, The Kitchen, Westbeth Gallery, KidSuper Gallery, WhiteBox Gallery, Dance Theater Workshop, The Cunningham Studio, Stephen Cohen Gallery, the Evergreen Review, Visual AIDS Gallery, and is part of The Ross Laycock Initiative For the Exploration of Science, Art, and AIDS.
After dancing with Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane and the Jose Limon Company, she started her own company and created conceptual performance pieces, several of which are documented in The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. A plane crash later and a brief dip in the Boston Harbor, she segued into still photography. After working as a photography assistant for Horst P. Horst and Sheila Metzner, she opened her own studio. Her photography clientele included Ferragamo, Cartier, J. Mendel, Bergdorf Goodman, the Guggenheim Magazine, and Takashimaya. Using a scanning electron microscope, Susan's ant portraits of extreme close-up imagery can be equated to both alien forms and our everyday, functional, living experiences.
Susan went to Pratt Institute as a painting major, got her BA at The Juilliard School in NYC, and has a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology. She has received The Society of Publication Designers Award for Photography, National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a NYSCA fellowship, an Emily Harvey Foundation Residency in Venice, and a residency at the Desert House in Joshua Tree. Her work has been deeply impacted by key concepts within the self-reflexive art movement: leaving the visible traces of the artist’s process within the piece, engaging the viewer to ask questions about the work, and ask questions about art - concepts that reoccur throughout her work. She is currently working on video / sculpture installations and a video/ photographic collaboration with the artist Carl George. During the pandemic, she created the29.art, a collective for self-identified women working in the arts. It’s a diverse group of artists ranging in age from 27-93 and still going strong.