Selected reviews were printed in the local newspaper, the Austin American Statesman and online at Austin 360, copies were printed out within the 20 minute time frame and one print taped face out on the window of the gallery and the second given to the visual artist. This performance has been done in Chicago, Brooklyn, Knoxville and Queens previously and was underwritten through a grant from the Creative Capital / Warhol Foundation. Below you will find the performance description, pictures from the performance taken by Seth Cox, a copy of my Artist Statement for the series and transcription of the Art Critique by Waxman.
"Schroedinger's Birdcages" (2007)Series in Four (4) Pairs [Red, Blue, White and Patina]
Assemblage [Found Object, Enamel, Glass, Filament and Paper}
Painting [Stenciled Aerosol on Board]
Assemblage [Found Object, Enamel, Glass, Filament and Paper}
Painting [Stenciled Aerosol on Board]
ARTIST STATEMENT - by Suza Kanon
Walls that protect also confine.
Schrödinger’s theory in quantum physics examines whether the observed object changes relative to its observation. Is the bird alive or dead, real or reproduction? In both media, linear repetition acts as both prison & stage. Flat birds defiantly swing in their 3d cages.
This studied comparison of buildup and decay gives form to birds in cages and stencils freed through the magic of negative space. Found objects rusted and decayed, layered in enamel and bits of shiny glass and mirror framing happy little paper bluebirds that may or may not peck your eyes out.
These birds have open means to escape but they choose to stay for us to watch. The observer is uncertain if the birds are returning or departing our field of vision. Perhaps this flight impulse is projected by the viewer. Relativity can be quite subjective. How deeply is existence influenced by the subjective perception of the observer? Have we limited ourselves by the very process of definition?
ARTWORK CRITIQUE by Lori Waxman [July 11, 2009 at 12:06 p.m. C.S.T]
Erwin Schroedinger, an Austrian physicist who founded the study of wave mechanics and won the Nobel Prize in 1933, has more recently given his name to a series of studies by artist Suza Kanon.
"Schroedingers Birdcages" is inspired by the physicist's questioning of how objects change in relation to their observation. In translating this relativist notion into sculptural and painterly media, Kanon has taken a route that looks wonderfully like Joseph Cornell's - she has put paper birds in open cages, along with bits of mirror. Of course, Cornell's purpose was nothing like Kanon's, or Schroedinger's for that matter - he was after a more idiosyncratic revelation of the extraordinary, and his odd juxtapositions continue to attract marveling today. But Kanon's tactic, meant to reveal how reality changes depending on the position of the observer - the birds seem alive from certain angles, depending on how they are caught in the dangling mirrors - also reveals something unexpected: the bird's point of view.
Because, although Kanon suggests that the birds stay in their cages so that we may better observe them, another way of looking at the situation is to imagine that the birds are so confused by the alternative realities reflected in the mirrors that they don't know what's free and what's locked up. They might also be fooled by the paintings Kanon has paired with each cage, which shows the birds floating free, up above any wire mesh. Maybe the birds believe what they see, and think they're already free. We live in a world of images, after all.
& here is the link to the npr interview they did during the show with the critic
here is the link if you want to read some of the other reviews she did in austin360.
60wrdmin.org
