Susan Derges

The Observer and The Observed

1991/2022

Susan Derges lives and works on the west coast of England near Dartmoor in Devon. She is one of the pioneers of the largely British movement (along with Adam Fuss, Christopher Bucklow, and Garry Fabian Miler) who in the 1980s and 1990s revived the art of the photogram taking it to new and unexpected places with a freshness of scale, color, and concept. This will be the Danziger Gallery’s third show of Susan Derges’ photographs. Recently, Derges began working in the studio combining analog and digital techniques to create new forms, colors, and perspectives hitherto impossible to capture. Her practice reflects the work of the earliest practitioners of photography but is contemporary in its experimentation and awareness of new technical, conceptual, and environmental issues. Derges’ newest works, which will be receiving their first American showing, largely use the symbols of gates and arches to explore themes of reflection, memory, and the flow of time. As Derges melds internal experience with the external landscape, the viewer is faced with images of water, bridges, and gates that could be familiar everyday sights but are not quite what they seem. Reflections falling onto the water's surface, views from its underside, shadows thrown across the ripples of a brook all give rise to an experience similar to that of the dream state and at the same time question the apparent solidity of our perceptions. With a control of color made possible by the latest photographic technology, Derges’ new works meld the constructed and the observed into a new chapter both for her work and for the medium. Susan Derges' work is in the collection of museums around the world including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London; The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and The Hara Art Museum, Tokyo.