Suzy Lake

By extending the portrait to encompass a full body, notions of identity shift into their relationship to the world. In this body of work, the bound or restrained figure becomes a metaphor to question notions of control.

In Choreographed Puppets, the power dynamics foreground a victim/oppressor relationship, yet the resonance of the work rests on the figure’s attempt at stabilization and/or self-protection. The struggle reveals an inherent dignity to prevail despite ‘an against all odds’ situation.

Thus, performances, videos and art work in subsequent exhibitions (ImPosition, Against the Wall. Zarathustra’s Roll, Choreographies Along the Dotted Line, and Vertical Pull) became more focused on qualities of the figure’s perseverance, and reduce the power dynamic to a metaphoric ‘given’. Uses of sequence, negative manipulated, or persistence of vision are strategies to emphasize experience of the struggle beyond documentary description available in the photographic image.

Pre-Resolution: Using the Ordinances at Hand positions the figure taking command over limitations or restraint. The photographs were limited to three strong, saturated colours and placed at a modest angle within the frame. These five-foot photographs are documents of the demolition act that extend into ‘action’ by the frame’s construction. It was built with 2“’x 4” lumber and painted with a trompe-l’oeil reference to the room within the image. The frame provides a context of confinement, which confirms a function beyond mere ‘picture frame’.