Overview
Susan kae Grant Thirty-Year Retrospective (1978-2007) featured five projects and five book-works created between 1977-2007. The works included Black & White gelatin silver-prints (1978-1981); Color Coupler prints (1982-1987); Color Coupler print grids (1987-1988); Iris prints (2002-2007); two site-specific installations, Vestiges (1993) & Night Journey (2000); and a selection of limited edition artists’ books (1978-2006. The accompanying catalog features essays by Nancy Whitnack and Hannah Frieser. The exhibition was on view at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas, Texas, September 15 - October 15, 2007 and was curated by Nancy Whitenack, owner and director of Conduit Gallery.

Essay
In reflecting upon the transitions in Grant’s work through this thirty-year period, Hannah Frieser, (currently Executive Director of the Center for Photography at Woodstock) wrote,

“Viewing a retrospective is much like a whirlwind tour through an artist’s life that highlights the best work within a career while also revealing changes in style, methods and content in the work. It can indicate shifts in interest and early manifestations of new ideas, and hint at changes within the artist as a person.

Grant’s early photography, especially her Autobiographic Dramas, is as raw-edged and emotional, as it is unsettling and open-ended. There is a recurring theme of feminism and an intense questioning of women’s role in society.

“Fast-forward twenty-some years and the work changes dramatically beyond a shift in style and methodology to subtle installations of light and shadow depicting otherworldly dreams. The aesthetics down to the visual vocabulary and emotional impact are different.

Something changed dramatically with the Vestiges installation that finds its conclusion in the Night Journey series. This change goes beyond a jump from extroverted to introverted, or loud to quiet. The angry, frustrated energy and probing of earlier images has been transformed into a veil of calmness that beckons the viewer to slow down while viewing the work.

A shift can be identified as early as the Color Grids series with a greater passivity of the female figure (the artist herself), though with the use of clippings from porn magazines and the intensity of the ritualistic burial scene, these large-format grids are far from subtle. However they are less aggressive in their message, and the viewer has to work harder to understand what the work is about.

The Vestiges installation captures the sanctity of an altar. The installation mixes images of animal hearts with text and audio voices in the room. The installation and the accompanying artist book are no less emotional than early work, yet they reach out to the viewer by seducing rather than confronting. Asked about the shift within her work, Grant explains, “One can only make work from the place one is at.”

Much of her work was inspired by autobiographical aspects, drawn from ideas noted in her journals or dreams she captured in her studies in the sleep lab where she worked with Dr. John Herman. The biggest change in her work so far occurred after the loss of her mother. Grant describes being with her mother in her final days and seeing her drift in and out of consciousness. “It was during that time that the idea to use the shadow as a metaphor for creating the Night Journey series came to me. The shadow seemed like the perfect access to the unknown, an outline of something happening but without the clarity of who the characters are.”

While the Night Journey series is based heavily on her research on R.E.M. sleep, the newest work is more intuitive and less pre-visualized, which Grant describes as moving objects in her shadow images around until the storytelling works. “I originally thought the work would be much more violent and include more of the difficult dreams, but as I worked, the images intuitively became much more magical and whimsical. I no longer felt the desire to make images of angst and despair, and I became more fascinated with lightness and memory and mystery in the unknown.”

While a retrospective exhibition may have us look to the past, it can also offer a glimpse forward. It may be old adage to say the best is yet to come, but as with all good explorations, in younger and in older days, there will be surprises, there will be something fresh and new, and it will be just perfect. Susan kae Grant presents herself in her work with all honesty and courage. We look forward to no less in the future.”  (Frieser 2007, pp. 10-11)