Overview

The constant of the female actor either dressed as suburban cypher or traumatized victim is a portrait of the personal collapse cloaked in social symbols and mythology.

SUSAN COPICH: Agent of Change

Essay written by Jen Dragon, curator of the exhibition Richard Edelman + Susan Copich (Cross Contemporary Art, 2018)

 

Susan Copich uses a classical sense of theater casting herself as both symbol and subject posed in idealized choreography. The drama is set in environments much like the painterly convention of “tableau vivant” with the open ended story seemingly frozen in time. The subject matter is the story of all women as they struggle within societal roles to defy them or be devoured by them. In each photo, Copich poses as an allegorical symbol creating a poetic moment. Rather than losing herself in personal revery, she deliberately engages and challenges the viewer who is forced into roles of at once witness, audience and accessory.

The constant of the female actor either dressed as suburban cypher or traumatized victim is a portrait of the personal collapse cloaked in social symbols and mythology. As Susan writes about her work, “Because of the current conversation on power, sex, men and women, it is perhaps the first time in modern history that women’s experiential perspective is on the table. It is upending existing norms and redefining the feminine side of the story, giving it voice and credibility; asking the female population to not only seek their truth, but be to let it be heard; requiring each of us to re-evaluate our experiences and then to articulate with clarity and subtly a more enlightened existence; demanding that we no longer model ourselves and our revolutions after masculine role models, but reflect deeply on our authentic experience. All this is no easy task and one that requires bravery, exposure, success and failure” And the message is universal: No matter what kind of distance is created by the formalized, staged tableau of the “portrait”, this space is undermined by an uncomfortable intimacy which inevitably illuminates the pain of living and the struggle for change.

Works
Video
Biography

From setting up dramatic tableaux vivants to clicking the shutter and obsessively re-shooting to make sure her meaning is clear, Copich does it all

Susan Copich has been featured in one-woman shows and won recognition in numerous juried exhibitions in the U.S. including  PHOTOWORKS 2019, curated by James A. Ganz, Curator of Photography, J. Paul Getty Museum. Susan Copich has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally including the National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian), Washington D.C, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Brownsville TX., Art for Peace Festival in Tehran, Iran, Moen Mason Gallery, Tucson AZ., Sohn Fine Art, Lenox, MA and has been an invited speaker at the Norman Rockwell Museum of Art and for the Professional Women Photographers (PWP). Ms. Copich has been the recipient of many awards including the 2019 International Photography Awards and the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

 

Exhibitions
Events
Art Fairs
Bibliography

Domestic Radicality" Bob Dickenson, Art Monthly no. 438, July - August 2020 

Then He Forgot My Name: A Photographer's Journey Begins Among the Ruins of her Past  Berkshire Magazine,  May 5, 2018

Domestic Bliss at Cross Contemporary Art, Paul Smart, Hudson Valley One, April 2, 2016

Twisted Domestic Bliss Series Challenges Attitudes Towards Women and Family Life  

     Marissa Dubecky, Bust Magazine, May 4, 2016

This Mom Was Tired of Being Left Out of the Family Photographs - So She Staged Her Own

     Jordan G. Teicher, Slate Magazine, November 4, 2014

Susan Copich: Domestic Bliss at Umbrella Arts  Musee Magazine, November 4, 2014

Mom Puts Herself Back into Family Pictures with Bold, Daring 'Domestic Bliss" Photo Series

Caroline Bologna, Huffington Post, November 10, 2014

 

 

 

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