Susan Luss: In the Time of Now

By WM, June 2020

Artist statement, Susan Luss: 

For a long time, I have used my body in creation of my work. The landscapes/maps on canvas are distillations of my urban wanderings, both physical and psychological. The emergence of these public performances, I’ll call them urban en plein air interventions, have become imperative for my survival “in the time of now”.* Using the forces of weather and nature: light, wind, rain . . . among them, within the urban landscape, is both resistance to and acceptance of, what is beyond my control. It is about struggling to ground my body in space and time in relationship to the environment, whether in a park or amongst architecture. While my work on canvas is large in scale, I experience it as small in relationship to the scale around me. These performative actions are a necessary part to the whole. My body is the blood of the city. Things are emerging and shifting. Situational. Provisional. Adaptable. Nothing is fixed. I feel my life prepared me for now. 

*"In The Time of Now" - This body of work was born out of the Covid19 pandemic during the New York City "shelter in place" order that began on 16 March 2020. As of this writing, 23 May 2020, there is no definitive end in site. My work will continue. WM

Susan Luss reworking a drawing on the roof of  the Dakota Building, New York, NY.
 

Susan Luss, performance and image at Bethesda Fountain, Central Park NYC  2020.
 

Susan Luss, performance and image at Bethesda Fountain, Central Park NYC 2020.
 

Riverside Park South, Hudson River.
 

May 19, 2020 – The Plaza.