Photographic Art | Iiu Susiraja’s works conquer one of the world’s most famous museums: “I’m tired of them already”

Artist Iiu Susiraja answers the call from his home in Turku, even though he could be in New York right now.

Susiraja’s solo exhibition A style called a dead fish opened in Queens, New York at MoMA’s PS1 space on Thursday, April 20. A private exhibition in one of the world’s most famous museums is a feat few Finnish artists have achieved. The only one that comes to mind is a video artist Eija-Liisa Ahtilawho held a solo exhibition in MoMA’s main exhibition spaces in Manhattan in 2006–2007.

“It doesn’t bother me that I don’t go there. I’ve never been a party type. I’ll go when I feel like I want to go.”

Wolf border so he enjoys himself at home. Earlier he has told that he dropped out of high school because of his poor English skills. Still, he is internationally very successful.

He has had numerous solo exhibitions in galleries both in Europe and the United States. Before this, Susiraja has had solo exhibitions in museums, together with Kiasma, in the Norwegian SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum. Turku WAM reported on Thursday that Susiraja’s solo exhibition will be seen in the museum in the spring of 2024.

Idea The solo exhibition at MoMA PS1 came from the curator of the museum From Jody Graf. Graf was in contact with the artist by email in late summer 2022. He said that he had been following Susiraja’s work since 2016.

It came as a surprise to Susiraja. He did not know Graf, and did not know that he had been following his work.

A style called a dead fish presents Susiraja’s work from 2008 to December 2022. The pictures have been selected by Graf.

“At first I was like, oh no, these old works again, as if someone can handle it. I don’t always understand that it’s new to some people. I’ve been watching them for decades, and I’m kind of tired of them already. But it’s good that there are old ones there, because an exhibition will open in the Nino Mier gallery in May.”

Yes, indeed. There will be another exhibition in the same city in May. Originally from Los Angeles, the Nino Mier gallery opens a new space in New York with Susiraja’s solo exhibition: Eight photographs, eleven sculptures, three reliefs and two video works.

The wolf border the mind is already clearly in the future. He would love to talk about his sculptures. They were exhibited in Turku’s Makasiini Contemporary gallery in the fall of 2022. They were terribly liked, but the words of one critic have remained in the artist’s mind.

“Time will tell if Susiraja’s art has enough appeal when Susiraja is out of the pictures”, critic Lars Saari wrote in Turku Sanomi’s exhibition review in October 2022.

In his photographic works, Susirajaa depicts himself. He often appears in pictures with one or two objects. In his well-known work Broom (2010) Susiraja stands in the kitchen, a broom buried under his chest. In the work Fountain (2021) Susiraja is lying on the bed. The umbrella placed upside down on the thighs is filled with yellow rubber ducks. Other objects in Susiraja’s work are, for example, a bucket, high heels, a bun, a baguette and a rolling pin.

Susiraja uses objects in “wrong, naughty or surprising ways”, according to HS’s critic Timo Valjakka described in 2019. His works have seen original surrealism, humor and latent hostility, such as Taidejulkaisu Artforum critic Alex Jovanovich described in an essay he wrote in 2022.

Is a mere sculpture of an object enough when the artist’s previous works have been based on self-portraits?

According to Susiraja, Saari’s question was perfectly appropriate. He had thought the same thing himself. He has decided to try to get himself involved in the sculptures as well, but time is running out.

Wolf border talks about his art reluctantly. According to him, it is not necessarily the artist’s task.

“Sometimes it can be better for an artist not to talk about his works. At least it works for me that I don’t talk. Because my knowledge is not enough for that in the first place”, says Susiraja.

He pushes the book towards the computer camera. A catalog of the MoMA exhibition will be published, which includes pictures of Susiraja’s works and poems written by him. There is also an essay by curator Jody Graf on Susiraja’s art.

“Pictures can be funny, but they’re never a joke,” Graf writes.

In the vulnerability of Susiraja’s works and the camouflage organized by objects, Graf finds points of convergence with, for example, the American by Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opien and Patty Chang’s and French by Claude Cahun to work.

I’ll try once more. Could Susiraja tell you a little about the title piece of the exhibition?

The artist says that the name of the exhibition was originally supposed to be Gut feeling according to his second work.

“That is, a gut feeling”, Susiraja translates.

However, a vote was organized among the museum staff and the title work was selected A style called a dead fish from 2018. In the photo, Susiraja is standing in his living room with a “toilet bear” – i.e. a wooden-handled pump with a red-brown suction cup on the end – pressed against his face and a dead fish between his legs.

“Yes, it’s a little bit related to that kind of sexuality, the name and image. But in my opinion, it reflects my view, which is in the pictures. It’s pretty empty. Could it be a bit like a dead fish. A bit like having your eyes wide open.”

Susiraja says that he strives for an empty space when making his pictures.

“I don’t really have anything in mind there. It’s like I just do it. And that look is what it is,” says Susiraja.

When the camera is brought up, people typically try to smile or otherwise present themselves. Susiraja’s expression is like that of a child who has not yet learned such conventions. Daring staring is unpredictable. The emotional state that follows could just as well be crying or laughing.

Wolf border eager to talk a little about his art. He says that it consists of three cornerstones: the body, the object and the milieu.

Susiraja’s works are often associated with body positivity thinking of recent years. The artist says that he doesn’t mind that his works are talked about in the same context as body positivity. The topic is important, even if he doesn’t want to take a stand on the discussion.

“Yes, I have to admit that the body is one. Because the pictures are self-portraits. I can’t say it has nothing to do with the body. When it’s not even a landscape picture. It’s a self-portrait. People don’t just look at the face, they look at the whole. It doesn’t matter if it’s skinny or fat, they still look at it as a whole. A fat person gets a tougher treatment, so they say. I’ve almost made it“, Susiraja says.

He thinks that he has gotten away with a little precisely because he does not take a stand on the matter. For Susiraja, the starting point of his art is an object.

“

“Twelve o’clock on that shoulder when there’s good light and that’s it.”

He thinks about objects all the time. They must be archetypes of some kind. Those that anyone can recognize regardless of age, gender and nationality.

Susiraja collects lists of objects on his phone. Then he puts on some good music, reads lists back and forth, and thinks about possible couples.

According to him, the finished works are created in an instant. For example A style called a dead fish – while filming Susiraja didn’t quite know where to place the toilet bear when he stood in front of the camera.

The wolf border according to which art is above all something to do. You can’t wait endlessly from the “feeling” to making art, he says.

“You just have to start doing it. That twelve o’clock to that shoulder, when there’s good light and that’s it.”

On Sunday last week, Susiraja had a fever, but still photographed two new works for the Nino Mier gallery exhibition. It was sweaty work, but it still got done, because that’s what he had promised the gallery.

Perseverance is rewarded when you see the finished image on the computer screen.

“Oh, it’s a good time when I stare at it and chatter and watch it again on my cell phone. It’s so addictive,” says Susiraja.

He believes that the same feeling is known by those who publish their self-portraits on social media. How nice it is to be able to look at them again and again after the fact.

Third the cornerstone of Susiraja’s art supporting list is milieu. Since 2016, Susiraja has lived in the home from which he answers the phone and in whose living room A style called a dead fish -work has been described. Before that, he moved a lot.

After a new beginning, says Susiraja. In the end, he understood that a new beginning does not come by changing. According to him, it’s bullshit. The apartment is owned by the parents, grandma’s old, good and in a nice location.

“I am quite satisfied. That I’m not sad that I’m not going to New York.Still, I’m terribly looking forward to what the future will bring. Especially now that there is this MoMA. But I’m quite satisfied now. Anything more that comes to this is just a bonus. I never thought that I would have a career abroad when I was so bad at English.”

He says that developing an international career has been lucky for him. But of course also that the works are good.

“We always talk about networking and traveling, but I would say that the a and o of everything are good works. It won’t get you anywhere. If they are not good or if they are the same as two hundred others, good English and networking will not help.“

According to him, success feels good, but the modern world and the unpredictability of life keep him in check.

“This could all be over tomorrow. I can be just zero. I don’t build things based on the fact that I’m a successful artist. Nowadays, the world and life always surprise, in good and bad ways.”

However, he would continue to make art, even if it was already zero tomorrow.

Iiu Susiraja: A style called a dead fish exhibition at New York’s MoMA in PS1 space 20.4.–4.9.2023.