Name | Susan Carnahan

Country | USA

DOB | 1969.03.24

Email | susancarnahan@msn.com

Web | www.susancarnahanart.com

Curriculum Vitae | Click Here

Statement | Susan Carnahan

Much of my work originates from probing my past in order to assess my present identity. I was an only child, and the solitude caused me to construct fantastical narratives in my mind. Now, as an adult and an artist, I am reinventing the dark and fantastical actions that I would never dare act out as a child. In many of my works, I depict characters who are longing for sexual and psychological interaction, but various barriers prevent them from engaging with one another. They remain perpetually isolated, vulnerable, and longing for companionship. Their desperate search is in fact my own.  

In reinventing these fantasies and exposing them to the outside world, I hope to strip them of their strangeness. At the same time, my work reveals an inherent, universal vulnerability in all day-to-day existence by showing characters who are isolated by their own limitations and unable to overcome them because of insurmountable communication barriers.

I began my exploration in photography, but my most recent works have been in the medium of video. My videos are looped and the speed of the image is manipulated to go either extremely fast or slow, reducing the narratives to their fundamental expressions and relationships. The works are displayed on 7" screens that are matted and framed, allowing the viewer to explore the ambiguity of the images. The audio component functions as a disjointing element, adding an unexpected playful quality to an otherwise dark and haunting narrative.