Artist: Susan Low-Beer

Susan Low-Beer’s most recent series Specimen has a unique quality that distinguishes it as a brave next chapter in her practice. The work also remains true to the themes that have grounded her practice for decades: the dynamics of human relationships, the interwoven experience of the physical and the psychological, and the simultaneous power and vulnerability of the body. The Specimen sculptures are rooted in abstraction and embrace absurdity in a way that her earlier works do not, therefore requiring an investment of time and contemplation from the viewer.

Set on customized bases including wooden tables, chairs and pillows, the Specimen works are domestic-size ceramic sculptures that integrate other found and modified elements, including fabric and wire. Predominately spherical or bulbous forms with surface designs that resemble wire mesh, they read as abstracted organs of the body. These ‘organs’ have protrusions that resemble passageways, veins or arteries attached to the larger forms. Many of the ceramic objects also reference the discards of industry – worn metal valves, bent pipes and car parts. The Specimen works are elusive in their exact meaning and decidedly abstract, but they also serve as stand-ins for larger human figures and have a definitive narrative quality.

Low-Beer’s study of gender and female subjectivity began early in her career and it continues in Specimen, most overtly in the works with paired ceramic objects. Primordium, is composed of two ceramic sculptural forms, one larger than the other that ‘huddle’ together in a cavity that has been carved into a wooden log. They rest in a bed of sawdust and the gesture between the two of them is one of both tenderness and protection; a meditation on the duality of parenthood. Mammilla, a whimsical work with a pastel palette, depicts two ceramic bodies in a gesture of warmth. The smaller grey form nestles into the blue form, connected by a curved tube. The cartoon-like foot of the blue form is placed firmly on the ground, as the grey form ‘feeds’ from the other, a reflection on parental responsibility with its inherent tensions and joys.

In another work, Pulmonen, a pair of spherical forms (a couple?) sit precariously on a tilted wooden base leaning into each other, one gesturing toward the other and one reaching upward. Ctenophore, with its two bulbous forms and long limbs reaching upward, has a similar energy. The couple are seated on a makeshift, propped up table with ceramic inserts, making the precarity palpable. The ceramic forms of Albuginea also read as a couple, this time decidedly male and female. They rest on abstract-patterned, pastel-coloured ground, with the tension in this work existing in the space between the forms.

From the 1980s through to the 2010s, Low-Beer completed several bodies of work that were directly figurative. With this new body of work Specimen, it seemed a logical next step that Low-Beer look inward, literally, and find another way to depict the body. The Specimen series is that look inward: at the insides, the viscera of the body. Some of these bodily ceramic forms, such as Oculus and Putamon, embrace play and humour. The singular bulbous organ forms rest ‘comfortably’ on a custom wooden base, as if they are seated for a portrait. A psychologically-charged and newer work from the series, completed in 2020, Seritorium, has a central organ-like form with ‘ropes’ wrapped around, creating a stressed tone within the work.

Building on the reference to internal organs, some Specimen works make overt reference to the passage of time, the vulnerability of the body and to mortality. Dysplasia is a singular brownish ceramic form with a particularly unruly and long protrusion, an abnormal growth. Its ‘limb’ is also wrapped in a nest of rusted wire, highlighting its stressed and compromised state. Two of the more minimal works in the series, Glossa and Lingua, are particularly emotional and full of pathos. They are made of elongated grey ceramic elements placed on small fabric pillows that could be interpreted as beds. These ‘bodies’ have none of the action or play of the other works: they rest motionless, suggesting the inevitability of aging and mortality.

With a career that spans decades and many celebrated bodies of work, artist Susan Low-Beer is a keen observer, a talented maker and accomplished visual communicator. Through her work in general, and most vividly in this recent Specimen series, she speaks precisely about her own experiences and observations, while simultaneously giving space for the viewer to be triggered, engaged and enchanted. 

Recent Exhibitions

Riverbrink Art Museum from September 10, 2022 - January 21, 2023