Susanne Bruynzeel

      Susanne Bruynzeel is an installation artist who received her degree in philosophy before making the transition to a visual artist.  She began exhibitions art in two thousand and four, many of her works have been displayed through Europe and North America. Her pieces predominately focus on the relationships that exist between light, space and architecture. She enjoys philosophy but felt the language, specifically words and definitions very limiting. During her studies at art school she felt an enormous amount of pressure to produce objects. I understand this feeling, and sometimes find myself struggling to take a step back sometimes and reflect on my own work. Susanne soon found herself pushing back, and in turn becoming more interested in the experience rather than the physical art object. During her studies she also found time to found her own artist collective, were she gave other artists the ability and space to display works. This soon became more of a struggle and after a year she stooped working with the space and moved on.
     Continuing to focus on structure and architecture, specifically following the lines of the space Susanne soon found herself being asked to create many installations. For example a work consisting of an eight meter long wall covered in post-it notes. This work created moment and various shades within the space. Dealing with chance and texture Susanna was able to engage the space and use the architecture as her canvas. Susanne elaborates “I am interested in the difference between seeing and looking, we often make judgments when we first view something and attempt to make sense or order. I particularly enjoy using colours as they have their own language. They are able to influence us long before we can make our own judgments." This point I found very relevant to my own work, specifically the idea of judging forms before we fully understand what we are seeing. I make attempts in my own work to challenge perceptions and preconceived ideas one makes when encountering forms. She affirms this again stating “sometimes you go into view a work and are expecting to see something, but when it does not satisfy your visual expectation you begin to make judgments."
     The work I found particularly interesting that truly encompassed this philosophy of hers was an oil pastel drawing that she made. She allowed the pastels to fall off the paper and land on a wooden ledge below.  When you go into the space you are left with only a ledge of colour, and you have to let your mind construct and make sense of what you are viewing where the drawing would have been. When you come into the space you are expecting to see an object, this challenges that idea of perception.
   Susanne believes that making art should be about having a passion for the work, rather than the monetary gains that could be made. Working with other artists and collaborating with them is very important in order to find your own niche within the artistic community. In today's economy she also believes working on the cheap  allows her to make art and not focus on selling anything. Finally her work is an excellent example of using space and ready made objects, to create work that is assessable and engaging.