The State of Things: Wreckage

The State of Things: Wreckage

The State of Things is an ongoing series of mixed media works on paper that represent my uneasiness in response to rapid change, constantly unfolding tragedies, and the seeming chaos of the world. In The State of Things I endeavor to find a delicate balance between chaos and order, between anxiety and optimism, between beauty and turmoil. I depict situations that are in flux yet held in tension. 

I begin by photographing heaps of scrap, reflective of our consumerist excesses, of our constant tearing down to rebuild our surroundings. I digitally turn the photographs into line drawings, which I print and then paint over. Sometimes I reorient the images to change their center of gravity and create a greater sense of tension. 

The State of Things series encompasses larger works on paper and these small pieces, subtitled Wreckages. In Wreckages, I mix images that are “zoomed in” to focus on small areas with others that give more encompassing views. The images inWreckages range from abstracted, unrecognizable forms to those that are quite grounded in mundane physical reality.

My intent is to create scenes that appear unstable, where there is a sense of excess, of tangled objects and forms in flux. Something might topple over or collapse. There is potential danger; yet the work invites one to enter and spend time. There are worlds of detail, color, complex space, even beauty, and subtle surface physicality to explore. Within the chaos, the works offer an opening for discovery and invention. 

— Susan Brenner