Susan Clarahan: EROTIC NATURE
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Norberg Hall 333B 36 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta T2G 1W2
Susan Clarahan, "Floral Serpent," nd
print from colour negative 1/3, 20" x 30"
Opening Reception / Friday, February 1 / 5 - 8 PM
In conjunction with EXPOSURE, Alberta Photography Festival, JHG is pleased to present Erotic Nature, a new series of analogue photographs by Canmore based artist, Susan Clarahan.
These photographs build a world that coalesces nature and bodies in a feminist exploration of sexuality, landscape, and ritual under frozen tree-lines and shimmering sunlight. Clad in sparkling, hand-stitched garments and furs, performers engage in intimacies and invocations as they connect bodily with the wild landscape and each other. Our viewership is external to the narrative within the photograph; the figures have intentions beyond our full comprehension and outside of the photographic frame. Depicting figures mid-ritual without overt explanation gives the subjects agency and direction within the images. The visual equivalency between figure and landscape creates a tension of intimacy and gravity, inviting our curiosity as well as critical consideration for its implications. These photographs are offered as a glimpse into this liminal and intimate space.
The artist is grateful to the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for their support of this work.