Susan C (Suzi) Dessel
Susan C (Suzi) Dessel · Source: New York Artists Circle · Rights retained by the original rights holders
- Medium
- Fiber, Ink, Mosaic, Paper, Wood
- Based in
- New York
- Practice
- Drawing, Fiber/Textile Art, Installation, Sculpture, Works on Paper
New York-based conceptual artist Susan c. Dessel’s art considers the responsibility we each have to affect social change through our actions or inaction. Though Dessel eschews labels, she is an artist whose work reflects… Full biography
Biography
New York-based conceptual artist Susan c. Dessel’s art considers the responsibility we each have to affect social change through our actions or inaction. Though Dessel eschews labels, she is an artist whose work reflects her experiences as an American, a secular Jew with strong connections to tradition, culture & history, a woman, and a feminist.
Dessel (BFA Hunter College, City University of NY, 2003. MFA Brooklyn College, CUNY, 2006) has had her work exhibited in the U.S., London, Prague, & Yerevan, Armenia. In 2011 she was a Visiting Artist at the Umm el-Fahem Art Gallery (Umm el-Fahem, Israel) and since 2012 has served on the Board of the American Friends of the Umm el-Fahem Museum of Contemporary Art. As the first visual artist invited to participate as a Fellow, the University of Michigan Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies (2013/14), Dessel researched the life and work of Martha Gruening (1889-1937): suffragist, civil rights activist, …, and began creating a new body of work, text-based drawings, Brick In A Soft Hat. The drawings and text based on Gruening’s life are included in the University of Edinburgh’s Dangerous Women Project. Dessel's original micrography portraits: Brick In A Soft Hat and Brick In A Soft Hat (Portraiture of Martha Gruening), Series 2, NOs 1- 8, were acquired for the Permanent Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
Artist statement
Through my research-based artwork, I strive to challenge viewers to consider the impact of their actions/inaction in shaping our society. My work bridges past to present, straddling issues societal and political. The imagery presents commentary on human dignity -- denied, and claimed – which I am currently exploring through immigration & women’s issues.
Micrography, practiced since the late ninth century, is the work of Jewish scribes who use tiny handwritten Hebrew text to create line drawings in sacred manuscripts. In my adaptation of this ancient art form, I transform the text into visual language, honoring the voices of those often not written into history.
Imagery breaks down language barriers, and while visual art offers a point of view it also frees viewers’ imaginations. Readers of Jewish texts are taught to search for secrets held within the text. I reveal the secrets of my imagery through the use of text, yet reading the small, run-on text contained in my drawings is not easy and viewers bring to my visual work layers of personal experience and knowledge that impact their understanding of the work.
