Suzy Poling

Wonderland of Decay

Mingling of Decay and Growth
Fantastical Entry Points
Metaphorical Rambling
Falling, an Innate Design
Material, Particles, Regeneration
Beneath Corners there is an Activating Light
Resonance, Resistance, Cycles
Psychology through Texture
Residual Matter meets Objects
Balance Between Remaining and Escaping

Living in the age of the Industrial decline, I photograph defunct amusement parks and mental hospitals seen through a fantastical lens. My work talks about the everlasting disenchantment of escapism and how cyclical forces of nature can triumph.

I think there is a subtle space between time and memory, where materials continuously exist in unusual ways.  I am navigating through landscapes and rooms that capsulate objects of identity, hope, trauma, entertainment and comfort. I visit these places to experience how light moves through the spaces and how unspoken energy remains.

Themed Escape>

My photographs are intended to create a dialogue about ambiguity and tension found in the mundane and fantastic. This work exists in a realm between documentation and constructive treatment with use of lighting, time exposure, and some installation. I find places that I find peculiar and respond to them by activating objects in various rooms or make sculpted forms to interact with the place.

Hidden Village is a sewn together photographic series of objects found in five specific abandoned theme parks left in the drudges of swampland and mountains. Treating each scene with camera manipulation contributes to throwing off the sense of proportion or scale, as if it were something like a staged set, diorama of miniatures or a glimpse. The oversized or undersized objects seen in their overgrown downfall have been pieced together to describe an ideal habitation. Finding the objects dilapidated within a passing moment, happiness, wonder and failure can blend into a unified perception of what landscape is. To this date, some of the houses have now been raised or squished by fallen trees.

Themed Escape is a collection of interiors that have "made up" decor to falsely provide a sense of escape or departure from the norm. Most of the interior spaces have been found in certain out of the way motels in small towns of Illinois and Wisconsin. The idea with this project was by moving things around or treating the humorous spaces it can lend itself to appear more like a stage setting for some sort of mental experience. The fact that some of the rooms exist in the world keep it in the arena of functionality and the question can be raised of "Can this possibly make one feel happy or better about the everyday?" Themed Escape is an exploration of endurance, hyper reality, confrontational color, and often-intrusive objects of synthetic nature. One of the main concepts in this project is to view life as a set or an absurd celebration, and to understand how much color can consume or effect. In each room that I have photographed the fantasy never achieves its goal completely which allows the viewer to inspect the underlying disintegrating truth beneath the facade.
 

Resume

"

"Wonderland of Decay: New Photos by Suzy Poling," Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL read reviews
"Group," Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL

"(Un)Natural History" Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Art Chicago in the Park," Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Reclamation: A Group Show," Zg Gallery, Chicago, IL

Fundraising Auction, Renaissance Society of The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
"Art Chicago," Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago, IL
"17th Evanston + Vicinity Biennial Juried Exhibition," Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL

"Cake and Polka Parade," Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Lurpious Showboat Follies," Butcher Shop, Chicago, IL

Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
Cliffdwellers Club, Chicago, IL
"Group show," Beret International Gallery, Chicago, IL
"Pairs," Butcher Shop, Chicago, IL
The Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, IL