Swipes of blue paint meet the familiar brushstrokes of green grass. A rising peach-colored sun against purple reeds and maroon tree trunks coming out of the ground. Susanna Bluhm’s newest landscapes combine the visually familiar with abstracted internal experiences. How do we experience a landscape that we see or interact with every day? How does that landscape react to us or other natural forces at work? What marks do these interactions leave behind?
Bluhm explores these questions in her newest body of work on display at J. Rinehart Gallery in Seattle. The exhibit is Bluhm’s third at the gallery, but these paintings mark a change in the artist’s work. As she states in the gallery press release, “An individual painting can become a new place in itself, with sensations of things that might happen in a place, such as weather, touch, landscape, temperature, sex, or noise. Abstract marks interact with more recognizable shapes, a kind of narrative ensues.” Bluhm outlines a distinction in this body of work from her previous paintings; they are more personal, more intimate, and inherently tied to our lived experience with the landscape that surrounds us every day.
The paintings have a twofold purpose: they are a way for the artist to examine her own experience in a landscape that seems to be constantly shifting; and they are also a method to acknowledge that the landscape has its own events which leave their own marks. Bluhm describes this method of meaning-making as a “reciprocal co-creative relationship”; the paintings illustrate the artist’s observations of the landscape through her own lens and document the reactions or evolution of the landscape through time. The result is an environment that is active not passive, with a meaning not solely defined by a human response. For example, Bluhm painted “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth (Greenbelt Three)” near a greenbelt by her home, and included symbols or badges throughout the picture to reference the past events that left their mark on the landscape. A wave motif appears repeatedly in these paintings, as in “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth (Morning Greenbelt)”with its two prominent wave images in the foreground. The painting also includes a series of icons within an oval that the artist describes as a type of key for the painting. It is important to note how the waves and other water references appear throughout this series. Water appears to symbolize transformation, upheaval, and change. It is a powerful force that changes what is in its path, as we can see when looking at landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. We may not see obvious signs of this ecological history, but Bluhm documents them regardless.
But neither humans nor the landscape operates within a vacuum. When Bluhm examined the landscape in her recently-completed MA in Comparative Religion, her studies focused on the repeated story of the ground opening its mouth in ancient Jewish texts. The title of her show, “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth,” references her research into this phenomenon, which bestows ownership and agency to the ground and landscape. In “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth (Afternoon Neighborhood),” Bluhm paints this activity into the landscape. Red lips and teeth open wide at the bottom of the picture, appearing to swallow up what rests above. According to Bluhm and the ancient texts, this action is a response that sounds catastrophic, but it can also occur to protect what may be in danger due to human action. Regardless of the reasons for the ground opening its mouth, the action symbolizes the understanding or fear that the ground beneath us is not steady or immobile, and it could at any moment open in reaction to our own actions. All this study is the artist’s reflection on her personal experience and narrative. Her vulnerability is on display to help the viewer understand their own connection to the landscape around them.
Visitors to “The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth” see the familiar components that unify Bluhm’s paintings. Colorful brushstrokes, natural elements, and a dynamic composition are all there in the work. However, the artist is clear that this series is personal and draws specifically from her life. She is painting familiar surroundings—the greenbelt by her home, and the University of Washington—and these works are the result of intense self-reflection. They are also a consideration of deep uncertainty about our social and environmental state, which seems to be constantly moving and shifting. In her works, the ground is literally moving.
Chloé Dye Sherpe
Chloé Dye Sherpe is an art professional and curator based in Washington State.
“The Ground, which Opens Its Mouth,” is on view at J. Rinehart Gallery, located at 319 Third Avenue S, Seattle, Washington, from November 1 to 26. An Exhibition Preview is to be held Saturday, November 1, from 2 to 4 p.m., with the opening reception on First Thursday, November 6, from 5-8 p.m. Bluhm joins the gallery for a discussion about her work on Saturday, November 15. For more information, visit www.jrinehartgallery.com.
