Force and fragility: The kaleidoscopic ecosystems of Vivian Suter— Tintin’s Sofa review
January 17 - April 5, 2020 @ Camden Arts Centre, London
Rarely do we see the turbulent forces of nature as sympathetic to mankind’s endeavors. Tempest-tossed and drenched, the subject at mercy of nature always occupies an adversarial position. Yet, when Swiss-born artist Vivian Suter’s lakeside studio in Guatemala was flooded, the foe that is the vicissitudes of weather would come to be a friend. Suter’s practice now flows in harmony with nature’s contingencies; born in Buenos Aires, she relocated to Panajachel in 1982, where the lush rainforest that envelops her would come to forge new meanings for her environmentally-implicated artmaking.
Recognising the near sublime implacability of nature, Suter has come to embrace the al fresco method, hanging her paintings outside in an invitation for metamorphosis, whether that be by exposure to sunlight, rainwater, or her three dogs. This untamed quality of nature is immediately echoed even prior to entering the two galleries that seek to contain Suter’s works. The paintings unapologetically swarm out of the gallery’s allocated boundaries, occupying the walkway in an animated interruption of the white-walled starkness. Upon entrance to the first gallery, one is confronted by a kaleidoscopic ecosystem of paintings swathed in colour; taken holistically, they possess a sentience that echoes Suter’s immediate environment: the rainforest. Densely installed, the unstretched canvases occupy almost every available space across the two rooms, suspended in rows akin to laundry on a drying rack and piled onto one another on the floor like undergrowth.
Individualizing each painting doesn’t seem to be of interest to Suter- none are titled, signed or dated; rather, they are to be taken en masse, as an ecosystem greater than the sum of its parts. However, that isn’t to say that a closer inspection of each painting isn’t worthwhile. In fact, it brings light to the subtle details symptomatic of the works’ exposure to nature: a frayed edge; a paw print; a paint-encrusted twig. Not solely do the works’ arrangement bear resemblance to a rainforest, but they retain traces of it; in doing so, Suter establishes a permeable membrane between the natural world and manmade one. Thus, in accumulating records of the environments they inhabit, the paintings serve as archives- a feature sustained even after having departed the rainforest. Now, the paintings are subject to the forces of misty North London, with a number of the paintings having been placed in the gallery’s outdoor garden.
However, this act of decontextualising- or one could argue, recontextualising- inherently comes with certain ethical dilemmas. In displacing such ecological works from their original context to urban world capitals, their sociocultural roots become susceptible to fetishization by Western consumers. And in this current timeline of environmental stresses- especially considering the precarity of rainforests- we can by no means afford to read these paintings as whimsical displays of exotic otherness. Rather, the harshness of nature’s imprints on these works must serve as an urgent reminder that climate catastrophe derives from the Western model of capitalist human activity and not some self-conceived phenomenon. Even within an urban landscape, we are beckoned to come face-to-face with this disconcerting reality; those of her paintings situated in the gallery’s garden, by virtue of Storm Dennis, thrash against one another with a violence that can no longer be dismissed as mere winter winds.
It goes without saying that the architectural decisions of the Camden Arts Centre are also implicated in this decontextualisation. Housing three galleries characterised by their high ceilings, irregularly placed rooflights and white walls, this architectural model could eschew politicization- yet, Suter’s ecological oeuvre resists being neutralized for purely aesthetic consumption, partially by virtue of self-conscious curatorial choices. As environmentally-implicated work, the reception of Tintin’s Sofa is too ideologically pertinent in its postcolonial reading of ecological crisis to ever be deemed a mere aesthetic experience. As sublime as the display is in its occupation of the gallery, it is more so the fact that Suter’s work- both literally and metaphorically- transcends its four walls that proves to be the most gripping feature of Tintin’s Sofa.
‘Tintin’s Sofa’ is at Camden Arts Centre, London, until 5 April 2020.
