AWITA X JW ANDERSON

HYPERAROUSAL

Susie Green curated by Harriet Cooper

21st July - 28th July 2022 | Install Photography

HYPERAROUSAL presents new work by Susie Green in the unique surroundings of JW Anderson’s flagship store in the heart of Soho, London. Bringing together large-scale paintings alongside intimate watercolours and collages, the exhibition considers dress, sexuality and fetish as a place to find joy and healing in the face of fear, anxiety and unrest.

Susie’s practice spans painting, performance and sculpture, depicting powerful, adorned bodies looking for love, safety, and belonging. She is fascinated by representations of powerplay and how humans navigate the world through their erotic imaginations. In order to construct her work, Susie reflects on her own life experience, collects images of outré dressed bodies, and visits spaces that celebrate sex-positivity and alternative lifestyles. Often with authoritative female-presenting figures at their centre, her bold and sometimes mischievous compositions simultaneously explore and celebrate women as both powerful and sexual.

HYPERAROUSAL draws on recent research at the UK Fetish Archive at Bishopsgate Institute, London including publications by SWISH who were previously based in Soho Square. In two new large paintings that dominate the front window of the JW Anderson store, the jubilant characters enlist inflatable props to explore interior and exterior play as a mode of fantasy. Installed alongside the current collection inside the store, watercolours and collages depict hedonistic scenes ornamented with swings, reigns and costumes, creating moments of liberation from day-to-day life. Through making tactile, candid works, Susie considers how pleasure and erotic play might provide altered states, emotional relief, or space for healing during times of uncertainty or difficulty.

Susie Green works across painting, performance, and sculpture, depicting powerful, adorned bodies looking for love, security, and belonging. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Queen Green at Woodend Gallery, Scarborough, UK (2021); Empty rooms full of love with Cathy Josefowitz at FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Reims, France (2021); Jerwood Solo Presentations at Jerwood Space, London, UK (2018). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at South London Gallery, London, UK; Galerie Derouillion, Paris, France; Kunstraum, London, UK; Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Paris, France. In 2019 she was nominated for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, and in 2021 she completed commissions for BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and CommonRoom. Her work is held in the collection of FRAC Champagne-Ardenne in France and in private collections including in the UK, The Netherlands, France and Germany. During summer 2022, Susie is in residence at Porthmeor Studios in St Ives, Cornwall.

Harriet Cooper is Head of Visual Arts at Jerwood Arts where she is responsible for developing and leading their visual arts work including projects, partnerships, funding and awards. She curates Jerwood Arts’ exhibition programme in London and on tour around the UK. Prior to this Harriet held roles at Firstsite, Colchester; British Council, London; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; Tate Liverpool, Liverpool; and The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. She was co-curator of Phyllida Barlow’s commission folly for the British Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale and in 2022-23 is leading the pilot of Jerwood Curatorial Accelerator, a curatorial and leadership development programme for early-career curators from low socio-economic backgrounds. Harriet is an Independent Member of the Cymru yn Fenis Wales in Venice Advisory Committee 2020-2024 and a member of the Arts Council Collection Acquisitions Committee 2022-23.

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