Interviewi with Susie Burningham
What is your role in the preparation for the Degree Show?
I’m a secretary with Kerri and I’m also at the web design team.
What are the current themes/concepts in your work?
Ok…That’s a hard one. So, imagining the somewhere else and trying to interpret an imaginary place within a framework of time and space. I am also interested in displacement and dislocation and taking yourself outside of yourself.
What mediums do you use?
I mainly draw and use charcoal and graphite, I also do oil painting.
How do these materials help you to develop your ideas?
Oil paint is really important because it gives you a great spectrum of colours and textures. I like to play with textures.
Is drawing a subconscious process in your work?
Yes I am quite free in the way that I draw.
Artists that inspire you?
Kathy Prendergast, she maps unconventional things, like she can map a hand… She interprets space and time in a new way. And Graham Gussin, he expresses our desire to be somewhere else.
What inspires you most?
Light and texture I’d say are the main things.
Do you dream about the places that you paint?
Yes sometimes, they are mainly day dreams…if I’m on the bus or train.
How are you planning to further develop your artistic practice?
I want to go really really large scale. To give my paintings a bit of an overwhelming presence. Which will heighten the sense of displacement. so that it feels like you are somewhere else when you are in-front of it.
What format do you like to use? I like to work with unusual canvas shapes, like circle, oval or really long and narrow.
Do you think a use of unorthodox formats in your landscape paintings helps you to immerse the viewer?
Yes I think it helps, I don’t think the standard format is necessary the natural way of looking. I think rectangles are used too much.
What was your main difficulty this term?
Probably time. Oil painting is very time consuming, so time management. And also…I don’t know how to explain it..when you have loads of ideas you have to pick up a couple, you can’t do everything.
Any other difficulties?
I don’t think so. (Laughing).
What was the successful part of this term?
Umm….successes….. I think that is harder than difficulties. Working with scientific apparatus was quite successful. I’ve never done that before and it was really exciting. What did you use it for? I used the scientific imagery to give my fictional landscapes a sense of reality. I added those images to my landscapes. What were the images of? Astrolabes. Always forget the names because they are too scientific for me..(laughing). Quadrants. Astrolabes mainly. It’s an apparatus that measures the outer space, the solar system.
Interviewed by Mariya Zherdeva
