die tageszeitung, taz (Aug. 2011)
Die beiden Künstlerinnen haben eine Utopie vom gleichberechtigten Zusammenleben von Mensch und Wildtier in der Großstadt entworfen. Im Garten des "Hauses am Waldsee" steht neben dem "Fish Spa" auch ein Baum für Krähen, die durch das Fressen von Samenbomben zu "Service-Krähen" werden sollen: Durch das Verteilen der Pflanzensamen werden aus den viel geschmähten Tieren nützliche Mitglieder der Gesellschaft. Einem pädagogischen Gedanken folgt auch der große Weidenkokon, der auf einem Pfahl an die Hauswand gelehnt ist. Durch das Wohnen in Menschennähe soll sich die "Parallelgesellschaft" der Zugewanderten, etwa von Waschbären, ins Stadtbild integrieren. Lustigerweise sieht der Kokon aus wie die tierische Variante des benachbarten "Loft Cube", der als Wohnutopie für Menschen gedacht ist. [...]
Berlin Art Link (Aug. 2011)
Ask a Berliner, and most will have a story about an encounter or glimpse of a large wild animal in the city. Berlin Wildes Leben, part of the Überlebenskunst exhibition and on display at the Haus am Wald See sculpture garden through November, London-based Michiko Nitta and Berlin-based Susanna Hertrich speculate on the future of these interactions. Their departure point is that large urban non-humans such as fish, raccoons, and crows are no longer treated as “intruders” but rather as “equal citizens,” accorded “rights” and “duties”. ...In this sense, Berlin Wildes Lebens, even if it is about humans, is truly “the Art of Survival” as its this reworking our relationships with non-human beings – from those incarcerated in factory farms, to the pets in our homes, to the pests in the streets, to the parasites in our bodies, that represents part of the fundamental paradigm shift required for the continued human habitation of the planet. [...]
photos by Marcus Owens
Art 21 (Feb. 2011)
Reality Checking Device by Susanna Hertrich allows us to face ourselves, to literally stare into our own eyes while Yes Men-style information correctives are offered in slick attire. A mirrored image screen activated by a touch-sensitive panel presents vivid circles of color to indicate the disparity between actual hazards and public outrage as inflamed and distorted by media spin. For example, the actual threat of bird flu is miniscule compared to public perception of that threat, just as the chance of crashing in a plane is dwarfed by actual fear surrounding that scenario. (This information didn't help me much for my return flight to Chicago.) The same is true for terrorist attacks, while the real hazard of cancer and credit card fraud is far greater than our awareness of either. Hertrich asks that we own this information as we read it on our faces in the mirror, an important first step in making informed choices about how we live. [...]
Exhibition text for Gloomy Haven (Jan. 2010)
Gloomy Haven by Zylvia Auerbach | extract
Dark, paradoxical thoughts characterise the very dilemma of human existence. They trigger unsolvable questions. Susanna Hertrich's works can be see as a pursuit to solidify these on-the-edge experiences in the form of images. The experimental artists' preferred material, –additonal to seemingly mundane objects – are her viewer’s expectations, in particular their viewing habits. Her works create an oppositional dynamic in which the constructive elements of time and space are constantly accompanied by a destructive momentum of crossing-the-line. Links to the works of Rebecca Horn become apparent, as well as references to Carsten Höller’s playful installations, especially when considering their scientific character. [...]
EMPAC (Nov. 2010)
Interview with Emily Zimmerman curator, Uncertain Spectator | extract
Susanna Hertrich's 2008 Reality Checking Device offers perspective on our anxieties. A graphic displayed on a mirrored box depicts the degree of public outrage a particular danger elicits - such as global warming, a car crash, or a terrorist attack - in relation to the actual risk it poses to the life of an individual. "It's reflecting your anxieties back onto you, questioning whether we're anxious enough about certain things and far too anxious about others that, in reality, are not likely to affect us."
Sytlepark (Oct. 2010)
Entitled »Membranes, Surfaces, Boundaries. Creating Interstices«, the at times slightly awkward exhibition show several, in part essentially experimental projects as well as others that are very advanced - all on the subject of surfaces and relate to the interstices of art, design, architecture, physics, electronics and materials research. While Susanna Hertrich takes a conceptual artistic approach to address the topic and her works tend to investigate the emotional side to surfaces, Clemens Winkler construes surface as a "level intermediating between humans and their surroundings" [...]