In 2017, we presented Susie Green’s first UK solo exhibition, ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’.
‘RELIEF RELIEF’ by Susie Green in ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’ at Grand Union, Birmingham, 2017. Image by Patrick Dandy.
‘SLOW BURN (PIERCE)’ by Susie Green in ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’ at Grand Union, Birmingham, 2017. Image by Patrick Dandy.
‘SLOW BURN (THRESHOLD)’ by Susie Green in ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’ at Grand Union, Birmingham, 2017. Image by Patrick Dandy.
Working in a range of media across sculpture, performance and painting, the presentation celebrated the body as a site for pleasure and politics. The exhibition was punctuated with a public programme of performances, screenings, and conversations.
The installation of sound, objects and painted works that made up ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’ probed at feelings and recollections surrounding both immediate and remote sexual intimacy. Susie created an environment in which these feelings were inhabited through the ornamental and physical properties of material. Not only an exercise in re-presenting desire but also an attempt to indulge corporeal pleasures, the space of the exhibition invites a sensual encounter between artist, object and viewer.
By staging an intimate exchange between bodies and things, ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’ traded in an economy of pleasure. Susie’s typically economic use of materials enmeshed with her preoccupation with fetish and form. Simultaneously ephemeral and decadent, the works seemingly revel in the excesses of desire. Such excess is written through with political potential.
The show launched with an evening of music, vocals and movement performed by The Brilliant State, a collaboration between Susie and artist Rory Pilgrim.
As part of Grand Union’s extended programme we co-commissioned a performance by Green and collaborator artist Simon Bayliss (Splash Addict) on the event of Fierce Festival’s 2017 launch party. A soundtrack to accompany the show was also been produced by Simon Bayliss.
The Brilliant State (Susie Green and Rory Pilgrim) perform at the opening of Susie Green’s ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’, Grand Union, Birmingham, 2017. Image by Marcin Cz.
Susie Green Performs at Fierce Festival, Birmingham, 2017.
The Brilliant State (Susie Green and Rory Pilgrim) perform at the opening of Susie Green’s ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’, Grand Union, Birmingham, 2017. Image by Marcin Cz.
About the Artist
Susie Green (b.1979) is a Zurich based, British artist whose sensorial practice spans painting, performance, and sound. Throughout her work, dress, fetish, and disguise recur as regular preoccupations, with bodies adorned in preparation for pleasure, decompression, and release. Her work often has an amped-up, biographical form, with commanding characters taking up space unapologetically. Liquid figures shape-shift and smoulder, poised between moments of transcendence and dissolution.
‘Pleasure is a Weapon’ was accompanied by an expanded programme of events, which you can find out more about through the links below:
Susie GreenPleasure is a Weapon
1 September – 18 November 2017
Pleasure is a Weapon: Gallery tour with Susie Green
21 September 20176–7.30pm
Pleasure is a Weapon: The Brilliant State performance
1 September 20179pm
Digbeth First Friday: ‘Pleasure is a Weapon’ Late night opening
6 October 20176–8pm