Artist Statement
Susanna Hertrich tells stories that contain a surreal imagination for the functionality of objects. Her works are evidence deriving from narratives that connect fiction and reality. Mundane artefacts, everyday situations or banal social acts are transformed into modes of expressions for naturally neglected desires, psychological dilemmas and secret fantasies. An obsessive fascination for machines and how we interact with these, leads her to building strange devices that open a gate to an alternative universe. Visualizing the invisible and celebrating moments of the Uncanny are recurring motifs. She often uses the language of products and her devices come with a clear directive — yet, their interpretation is completely left to the viewer.
Biography
Susanna Hertrich (1973, Paris) established her professional practice in 2008 after graduating from the Royal College of Art in London. She moved her studio to Berlin in 2009 after returning from a research stay in Tokyo. Her body of work includes photography, installations, video and devices that are embedded into narratives which link reality and fiction. She likes to challenge the boundaries between scientific research and art.
Her work is published and exhibited internationally, among others at MARTa Herford, Triennale di Milano, Z33 – House for Contemporary Art, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, EMPAC, Goethe Institute Warsaw, Aedes Architekturforum and FACT. Susanna had her first solo exhibition in 2010 at Felix Ringel Galerie/garage. In dialogue with researchers from the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Sciences and the participating artists, she curated the exhibition »Membranes Surfaces Boundaries«, funded by Schering Foundation for the Arts and Sciences. Her project »Berlin Wild Life« was supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation from 2010–2011. She will attend an artist residency at Tokyo Wonder Site in 2012.
Research affiliations include a position as visiting researcher at the Design Research Lab of University of the Arts Berlin, fellowships at Meta-Perception Research Group at University of Tokyo, Intel People & Practices Research Lab in Portland (USA) and Pervasive Interaction Lab at Open University in Milton Keynes (UK). She is board member of »Devices That Alter Perception«, a group of international scholars and artists interested in the design and critique of systems whose explicit purpose is to alter human percepts. Between 2002 and 2006, Susanna was appointed Associate Professor at the National Academy of the Arts Bergen in Norway. She lectures and leads workshops in Berlin and elsewhere.