textile art installation

The Unfurling

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, The Unfurling, textile, resin, 350cm x 450cm x 450cm

Exhibited in 3D Poolside, Warringah Aquatic Centre, curated by Bronwen Dugan. Drifting dreamily in trees by the poolside The Unfurling explores ideas about the importance of sanctuary for us all, having the opportunity to escape from our everyday struggles. We are all subject to forces beyond our control but a taking a breath of air, connecting with precious natural environments can nourish and transform us so we are ready to face the world once again with renewed hope and resilience.

Suzanne Davey, The Unfurling, textile, resin, 350cm x 450cm x 450cm
Suzanne Davey, The Unfurling, textile, resin, 350cm x 450cm x 450cm
Suzanne Davey, The Unfurling, textile, resin, 350cm x 450cm x 450cm

Dopamine

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, Pffft……, detail, textile, wire, 280cm x 130cm x 130cm

The Seed Stitch Collective are playing with the theme ‘Dopamine’ for this year’s Sydney Craft Week. Best known as the driving force behind the feelings of anticipation, euphoria, motivation, and desire, this potent chemical has a complicated flip-side. Through the contemporary use of textile mediums, Soraya Abidin, Suzanne Davey, Niki McDonald, Christina Newberry, Emma Peters and Kylie Walsh each bring their personal take on the Dopamine theme to generate a space radiating with energy and colour in a group show at GAFFA Gallery.

Suzanne Davey, Pffft……, textile, wire, 280cm x 130cm x 130cm

Look here! Now over there! Me, me, me! What, is that me? I am so in loooove! Our everyday digital world is awash with images passing before our eyes; they wow us, entertain, mesmerise, move, shock and distress us but we can’t stop looking. The puff and ruffle of our constructed social media identities razzles and dazzles us. The shiny, the new, the now, all captures our fleeting attention. That dopamine rush. Technology systems enter our virtual spaces, forever expanding and developing new ways to hook us to their particular message. Pfffft… asks what are we truly seeing? What are we really experiencing? Who are we connecting with? What does visibility mean in a media saturated world?

Suzanne Davey, The Saga, bedsheet, clothes, ceramic, polyester filling, 110cm x 70cm x 8cm
Suzanne Davey, The Saga, bedsheet, clothes, ceramic, polyester filling, 110cm x 70cm x 8cm

The Saga explores the dynamics and complexities of relationships from a feminine perspective using domestic textiles. The work responds to romantic struggles and failed relationship tales, accounts of sexual transgressions against women, both personal and collective. The sheet, with its physical proximity to skin and bodily experiences is utlised as an emotionally charged site where love and personal drama is experienced, in sickness and in health. Memories and histories, both good and bad, are embodied in the fabric stains, marks, surface rumples and gathers created by bodies tossing, turning, resting. The Saga employs romantic gesture; a floral bouquet and scattered petals, to mark the fabric through the application of heat. It uses the language of romantic opulence; ruffles, frills and gathers of gendered clothing, to question power and control in relationships and its role in creating feminine histories.

Reaching for the Moon

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, Reaching for the Moon , curtains, thread, metal,  makeup, paint,  280 x 160 x 110cm
Suzanne Davey, Reaching for the Moon , curtains, thread, metal,  makeup, paint,  280 x 160 x 110cm
 
Gazing through a domestic lens our understanding of the world beyond is both revealed and concealed through ebbs and flows of knowledge. Reaching for the Moon reflects upon the complexities of our interrelationships with spaces and how cultural and social perspectives transform our experience of place.  
 
Vintage curtains and their metaphorical associations with the discarded, the everyday, the body and gender are utilised to investigate the phenomena of viewpoint. Constructive and destructive making traditions examine tensions between the visible and the felt, interior and exterior space, social realities and romantic ideals that influence our perception and knowledge of our worlds.  
 
The moon is often cast as a cultural mirror upon which we project notions of hope, aspirational dreams, escape, utopia, spirituality, quests for discovery or a desire for universal conquest. It’s a talisman that connects us all but we also experience it differently, depending on our cultural and social veiwpoint. Gazing upwards at the sky our concept of the moon never wanders too far from the worlds we know best.
 
 
 
 
 

Rise and Fall

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, Rise and Fall, textile, metal, ink, 180cm x 130cm x 40cm

Rise and Fall is a textile work created in response to recent political storms and to the rise of the right internationally.  It wafts and wanes in the slightest breeze. Exhibited in Four Elements: Water, Creative Space.

Suzanne Davey, Rise and Fall, textile, metal, ink, 180cm x 130cm x 40cm

Statement:

Tides rise and fall, waves rise and fall, storms rise up….. and fall away.
Water rises and falls with its own agency and we rise and fall in its wake.
 
The rhythms of ocean systems mirror social and political storms we face now; the rise of the right and political aggression and the resultant flows of people in the wake of these surges.
 
Webs of crossings and traversing, flows and networks of social relations, our fragility in the face of storms and the constancy of change are investigated through textiles. Utilising the language of sails and flags time and human action is made visible as the surface is ripped, pierced, punctured, repaired and stained and new connections are made.
 
Together with water we rise and fall, face change and unknown futures.

The Gravity of Moments

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, The Gravity of Moments, fabric, steel, resin, 350cm x 350cm x 350cm

The Gravity of Moments is a large suspended installation that flutters in the breeze. The work is featured in Sculpture in the Glen, along with 50 local, national and international artists work and includes small indoor and large outdoor sculptures in a variety of media. The exhibition is curated by Penny Philpott and celebrates Glen Street Theatre’s 30th anniversary. It opens 5 September and continues untill 25 October 2015. The ethereal sculpture responds to its theatrical site and bushland gardens.

The Unfurling

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey The Unfurling 10m x 3m x 2m, recycled clothing, resin, steel

The Unfurling is a large scale site responsive installation of suspended body ‘voids’ created from recyled clothing and resin, harnessing wind and light. The work was exhibited as part of the North Sydney Art Prize 2015 at the Coal Loader Waverton.  The site is located on the shores of Sydney harbour and examines the coast as a place of sanctuary.


The Unfurling is a response to the debate surrounding vulnerable populations arriving on Australian shores and beyond, and the human costs. Individual rights and national interests are given precedence over collective human rights. Tragedy grips people dreaming of sanctuary but who are subjects to forces beyond their control through war, politics and discrimination.
Clothing is utilised as a social and cultural signifier of identity, memory and psychological ties with others. The clothes become traces of the bodies that once occupied them, ‘voids’, and on mass symbolise the collective struggles of vulnerable people. 

Wind choreographs movement in the collective and subjects them to elemental forces beyond their control. The sculptures are translucent and reflect natural light as they move.

The work was inpired by the poems of Mena Johnson, a poet that I collaborated with for the On Islands project at Eramboo Artist Environment.

The Unfurling installation detail On Islands project

The Unfurling installation view On Islands project

The Unfurling installation video showing movement, On Islands project

The Unfurling installation details On Islands project

The Unfurling bushand installation view On Islands project

Groundswell Public Art Installation

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, Groundswell, recycled clothing, resin, paint, steel, 350cm x 800cm x 400cm

Groundswellis an energetic public art installation created for the ENLIVEN festival, Mona Vale. The work was commissioned by Pittwater Council and was made in partnership with the charity Lifeline.

Made from donated recycled clothing Groundswellis a suspended installation made from pants of all shapes and sizes. Lots of legs appear to be surging forward, walking and running, and hopefully creating a ripple in the local community.
The work draws inspiration from the site. Davey states, “ As soon as I saw the Lifeline Centre in Bungan Laneway and its recycled clothing I knew exactly what I wanted to do. To me Lifeline is all about reaching out to life and connecting with others for support. Clothing is all about people and living.”

Special thanks to Lifeline for their generous donation of clothing.

Groundswell installation , shadow detail
Family enjoying the Groundswell installation at the ENLIVEN festival
Rear view detail, Groundswell installation
Detail, Groundswell

Window reflection, Groundswell

A Thousand Steps: Keeping Company Manly Art Gallery and Museum

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, A Thousand Steps, fabric, wood, bamboo, 350 x 120 x 400 cm


A Thousand Steps is an installation created for the Manly Art Gallery & Museum ‘Keeping Company’ exhibition. New works were made in response to a range of artworks held in the Manly Art Gallery & Museum collection. A broad range of art media was represented including painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, printmaking, textiles and glass. A Thousand Steps responds to Paola Talberts photograph, Kairos (moment of truth), 2000.


Paola Talbert, Kairos (Moment of truth), 2000, Type C LED print, 47 x 74cm,
Manly Art Gallery & Museum collection purchased 2004

Kairos (καιρός) is an ancient Greekword meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment). Signifies a time between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens.

Artist Statement

I was immediately drawn to Paola Talberts work, Kairos. The sensuality of the image with its dreamy, floating figure catching her breath and her rich and moody use of light and transparency all had great appeal. I have responded to the work both materially, through the use of fabric and conceptually, by exploring journeys and transition points. Wings have long been metaphors for our desires to explore, take flight, and soar to new heights. A Thousand Steps marks our day to day hopes and struggles as we journey through life.


Suzanne Davey, A Thousand Steps, fabric, wood, bamboo, 350 x 120 x 400 cm

Suzanne Davey, A Thousand Steps, fabric, wood, bamboo, 350 x 120 x 400 cm

Concept proposal drawing

On the Way to Ithaca: HIDDEN Rookwood Cemetery Sculpture Walk 2013

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, fabric, steel, bamboo, 320 x 350 x 750cm

HIDDEN

On the Way to Ithaca was created for the fifth HIDDEN Rookwood Sculpture Walk held at the Rookwood Cemetery; the largest working cemetery in the southern hemisphere. The exhibition was curated by Cassandra Hard Lawrie. 40 selected artists responded to themes appropriate to the site such as life, love, death, loss, memory and mortality as well as the culture around memorial, eulogy, burial and ceremony.  



ARTIST STATEMENT

Have Ithaca always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don’t in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years……..

Constantine P Cavafy

However long our life may be our journey is punctuated by many beginnings and ends. These moments are marked in funerary architecture and memorial landscaping by gates, arches and avenues. On the Way to Ithaca is an ethereal response to these forms as we travel between our first and last breaths; our lives shaped by our ties and connections to one another. The installation aims to explore the tension between life and death, and the fragility of life, as we journey towards Ithaca.
Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, installation detail

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, installation detail
Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca, installation view from the All Souls Chapel
CREATIVE PROCESS

Suzanne Davey, On the Way to Ithaca proposal drawing

On the Way to Ithaca, developing the work in studio

On the Way to Ithaca, installation on site

Wind Songs: Art In Odd Places

| Suzanne
Suzanne Davey, Christina Frank, Lisa Marshall, Wind Songs, umbrella covers, thread, dimensions variable
 
WIND SONGS is a public art project created by Suzanne Davey, Christina Frank and Lisa Marshall for Art in Odd Places Australia 2013 exhibited 14-15 September Dee Why Beach, 21-22 September Manly Beach.

WIND SONGS is a dynamic, colourful installation that uses an everyday object, the humble umbrella, and transforms it from the ordinary into the extraordinary. A mass of umbrellas have been de-constructed and re-configured in new and surprising ways. The ‘fly away’ work responds directly to the elemental landscape of Manly and Dee Why. Floating in the sea breeze it sings songs about fragility, struggles and the power of transformation.



Wind Songs Dee Why Beach
 
 
Wind Songs Manly 
 
Project Rationale: Umbrellas are utilitarian objects charged with memories and a myriad of metaphorical possibilities. Nostalgia for summer holidays at the beach, fresh sea breezes, life saving flags, experiences of wild storms, rain and wind and our basic human need for shelter and protection are all evoked by the humble umbrella.
 
Umbrellas are also delicate and fragile objects. In strong winds umbrellas have a tendency to ‘fly away’ and de-construct. On windy days at the beach runaway umbrellas cartwheel dangerously across the sand. On wild wet days locations such as the Manly Corso are littered with discarded rain umbrellas, sad and forlorn, inside out and broken.
 
The installation is a large colourful, geometric canopy/banner/structure constructed from found and collected umbrellas and arranged together in a tessellated pattern. The installation responds directly to sea breezes, creates bold shadows patterns on surfaces and creatively expresses the umbrella’stendency to ‘fly away’ in response to wind. Through its dynamic composition, its re-construction and final transformation of multiple umbrellas into a new form Wind Songscan remind the viewer of…….
  • the fragility of life
  • being in the moment, the brevity of life
  • everyday struggles: weathering storms, the whirl of life, the risk of the things we depend on de-constructing and flying away.
  • transformation and re-ordering eg: moving through major personal changes or crises
  • memories and nostalgia for summer holidays, childhood, beach days

Wind Songs project proposal drawing