Dream Bird, Hatching the Egg Susan Stainman
Point of Contact Gallery Staff Sara Felice Managing Associate Director Natalie McGrath Assistant Director Rainer Wehner Preparator Anthony White Gallery Assistant Tyler Sanchez Public Relations Intern Weisi Liu Budget and Finance Administrator Tere Paniagua Executive Director of Cultural Engagement
Dream Bird, Hatching the Egg Susan Stainman This exhibition is made possible thanks to the generous support of The College of Arts and Sciences, and the Coalition of Museums and Art Centers at Syracuse University.
About the Artist Susan Stainman is an interdisciplinary artist, specializing in sculpture, installation, and social practice in which she utilizes her sculptural language of sensuality and color to create visual metaphors of her own personal experiences. She explores the interconnection between Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and the creative process. Her objects made of fabric and other quotidian materials connect the walls to the felt-covered floor. Low-lying back rests dot the space, inviting viewers to recline and contemplate their own experience, alone and in intimate conversation. Seemingly incongruous to boredom, the colors and tactility of Stainman’s work are a lure, drawing the viewer in through the body as a means of manipulation, lulling them into mental relaxation and an experience of natural mind. A graduate of Brown University and the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She has attended residencies at Jentel Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, CAC at Woodside, and Vermont Studio Center. Stainman is a meditation teacher with a decade-long personal Buddhist meditation practice. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Stainman’s meditation-based installation, Dream Bird, Hatching the Egg, has inspired several special events at Point of Contact Gallery, incorporating self-care and spiritual wellness into the space. Some of these events were directed by Stainman herself as well as meditation and yoga practitioners within the Syracuse community.
9 Trapezoids, 2013, Acrylic and hinges. 30 x 72 in.
Views from the installation of Dream Bird, Hatching the Egg
Artist-led meditation session with Susan Stainman
Chi & Chocolate: An Evening with O Yoga at Point of Contact
An Interview with Susan Stainman by Natalie McGrath NM: How did you first develop an interest in Buddhist philosophy? SS: I’ve been meditating for over a decade now. I began to explore meditation through yoga, but over the last few years I’ve studied Tibetan Buddhism. I work as a meditation teacher as well, but this project is a first in merging my meditation practice with sculpture. NM: I was curious about the title. Where did it come from? SS: The title is from an essay by the philosopher Walter Benjamin called “The Storyteller.” He talks about the whole process of being a storyteller and the way the individual and the group are intertwined in storytelling, which fits with the exhibition. But there’s a part of the essay where Benjamin talks about boredom that I loved. He wrote that boredom was a necessary part of the storytelling process, that it is the height of mental relaxation. He then says something like “Boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience.” I love that phrase. It was such an amazing image and exactly what I was trying to convey. That boredom, space, slowing down of time, is not an irritant, but something that is generative, something beautiful. So I used it for the title. NM: How did you learn to work with textiles? SS: I am entirely self-taught. I was drawn to textiles, because there is definitely a feminist perspective to explore as a woman artist reclaiming the use of textiles for work that will be shown in a public space. In addition, I was interested in working with textiles because of the relationship with our bodies. We wear fabric against our skin everyday and so using fabric in my artwork was a great way of drawing people in through their senses making that connection with touch and tactility.
For this show, the forms I’ve constructed on a flatter plane are new to me, but wanting to try different techniques and an interest in layering inspired these works. I was looking at a lot of Brazilian neo-concrete art at the time. It was highly conceptual, environmentally based, and driven by personal experience. I was looking at a lot of Ernesto Neto’s and Hélio Oiticica’s work. NM: As color and tactility are key factors for your interactive installations, do you feel that one of these qualities take precedent over the other? SS: No, they’re very much interlinked. Because I use fabric, there is a direct relation to the body and the senses. I’ll often go to the fabric store and make decisions based on which materials have the biggest impact on my senses. I’m definitely drawn to more saturated and vibrant colors. This project was a major effort to incorporate hues like gray, which I’m not usually drawn to. In terms of tactility, it’s pretty much the same process. Whatever my eye and hand are drawn to is what I tend to use in the work. NM: Your installation is designed to offer space for individual reflection as well as group interactions. As an artist interested in social practices, do you find that particular types of spaces are more effective for producing these environments such as interior vs. exterior or large vs. intimate? SS: I think that its more about how you direct bodies in a space than the space itself. Although whatever object I make, that form helps to create a space. I can say that a room is arguably more efficient because it’s a defined space; that is easier to control than an open space outdoors. Once you have that defined space, I’m then really interested in how viewers move in that space. Works are hung very low, so that people have to squat down to really see them, or so they are a bit of a surprise. On the other hand, a work in the show is hung above the paint line, in essence breaking the boundaries of the installation. I want to move people’s bodies as they interact with the space and also break their conceptions of how art should be installed and interacted with.
NM: What would you say is the most effective way for visitors to engage with your work? Knowing that these installations are made to be touched and interacted with, I feel that “visitor” is a more suitable term in this case than “viewer.” SS: Absolutely. The most important factor is time – my hope is that people will spend time, which is why there are places to sit and feel reasonably comfortable. In some sense, the installation is about the aesthetics of the work, and in many ways it’s not. Some of these objects are sculptures, but also functional objects at the same time. I want people to appreciate what they’re looking at, but also have the choice to look inward and possibly slow down. There’s an expectation for what an art gallery is, and there is an expectation of perpetual motion in American life that I want to challenge. We are often valued by how productive we are in our society. I want to demonstrate that there is value in slowing down, and that boredom can be positive, not just an irritant as its normally perceived. Boredom, really space and time, is a necessary part of the creative process and I want to create a space where people can be bored. Maybe a visitor will experience all this, the slowing down of time, the creative expanse of boredom. Maybe a visitor will just sit down and relax for a few minutes and that’s enough for me.
Meditation in Motion with Allie Berger, Religious Studies PhD candidate
Special Events
February 9, 2019: Artist Led Meditation with Susan Stainman In the company of students and visitors, Stainman demonstrated techniques for meditation and mindfulness by engaging with elements of the exhibition space.
February 28, 2019: Meditation in Motion with Allie Berger Drawing on techniques from Buddhist meditation and contemplative movement practices, Syracuse University PHD Candidate Allie Berger guided participants toward a more subtle awareness of body, breath, and mind through meditation.
March 1, 2019: Chi & Chocolate: An Evening with O Yoga at Point of Contact Students and visitors of all experience levels joined Point of Contact for an evening of chocolate tasting and yoga led by Nostalgia Chocolates and O Yoga Studios. Yoga was led by instructor and owner of O Yoga, Tiffany Cagwin.
Video stills from Dream Voyage, an interpretive dance performance by Allie Berger
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