Susanna Moller

Susanna Moller renders portions of the human anatomy in small format watercolor paintings. The paintings, each measuring eight by twelve inches, isolate different body parts for depiction: four teeth protrude from the fleshy gums in one, in another a single finger hovers alone. This isolation, which Moller achieves by excising these specific appendages and organs and placing them in the empty expanse of the surrounding blank page, disturbs the otherwise mundane subject matter moves towards abstraction lacking any of the usual physical anchors with which we would normally view them.

The manner in which Moller paints heightens this abstraction. Lacking any visible brushstrokes the colors of the painting blend softly into one another. The affect of the paintings is far too striking to call the painting sloppy, however, there is a looseness, a softness to the marks. This in combination with the light watercolor results in a kind of delicate image. Though it does not seem to be an attempt at highly detailed depictions of the human body, there is a nuance in their delicacy. What is achieved is a kind of visceral realism; leaving room for the imagination to enter. Pleasantly running through the gradiated tones with the eye, the mind is able to take hold. Perhaps this feeling stems from the fact that it is the human body that is depicted, one can almost not help but empathize with the forms, connecting them to our own physical experience.

It is this connection that makes the pieces so powerful, so disturbing. The delicately rendition is juxtaposed with hideously deformed appendages. Toes and fingers are bloated, twisting, painfully crooked. A jawline jumbled with teeth of markedly different sizes jutting out at unnatural angles. These haphazard assemblages of flesh and bone so abstractly rendered transform into rows of mushrooms, the ruddy color of the skin, rows of blackened cavity-filled teeth, shift into a fungal patina.

The viewer’s relation to the images becomes an upsetting one, both heightened by and emerging from the physicality of pieces. The work is upsetting in the feeling created by the grotesque deformations but also in the way in which these deformations move towards abstraction; it is difficult to ever completely resolve the images. They are unstable representations, interpretations flow into one another like the watercolors on the paper.

I cannot help but recall the paintings of John Bell (http://johnmartinbell.com/), whose work occupies a similar position between abstract and representational. Whereas Bell is trying to capture a feeling of life in motion it seems here as if Moller almost moves in the opposite direction, but with an interesting nuance. Depicting the process of decay Moller lends it its own special vitality in motion.