The Art of Life : An Embodied Inquiry

In March this year I was invited by MSP Siobhan Brown and MSP Ruth Maguire to show my work at Holyrood in the Scottish Parliament Buildings in Edinburgh.

The exhibition hosted by Ruth Maguire and supported by da Vinci Artists Brushes consisted of a series of paintings on steel accompanied by a short film about the inspiration behind my work. The film: The Art of Life: An Embodied Inquiry was sponsored by Imperial College London and Fact Not Fiction Films.

Originally, this event was scheduled for Spring 2023, however, due to the sudden loss of my father and then my dearest uncle, I postponed the exhibition in order to allow me time to care for him until the end of his life.

Aside from being a bookbinder and a talented musician, my uncle was a metallurgist, as was my father who worked in the steel industry. In celebration of their lives, I decided to work with steel and exhibit the paintings in my homeland of Scotland.

 One of the wider aims of the exhibition taking place at parliament was to highlight the importance of ensuring that we maintain our position in the UK as a global leader in genetics and genomic research.

In recent times, the landscape of debilitating conditions such as M.E. have undergone a transformation, with COVID-19 emerging as one of the most common triggers for this chronic illness. Scientists have now linked the two syndromes of Long Covid with M.E. (CFS). The intersection of these two health challenges alone has resulted in a significant increase in the number of people affected by M.E. now estimated to be more than 55 million worldwide. It is not only a matter of funding that is necessary to initiate treatment strategies in this area. Good scientific research proposals are vital, but for that to happen the medical community needs to wholly unite in order to break down misconceptions and stigmas surrounding M.E. (CFS) in society.

 As an artist with an inherited interest in science, I have grown to understand the value of scientific research in an era where precision genomic medicine is capable of revolutionising the mainstream healthcare system.

 The works were available for purchase and a percentage of sales donated to Moorfields Eye Charity & M.E Research UK.

The Marcus Dorner Prize

I am thrilled to have my painting The Naked Virus selected by Imperial College, London, to become the image used to celebrate The Marcus Dorner Prize.

Filming MUSSINI® at Jackson's

This year I had the honour of being made an official brand ambassador for award-winning premier artists’ paint manufacturer Schmincke. So when Jackson’s Art invited me to their beautiful studio in North London to talk to camera about Schmincke MUSSINI® oil paints I was thrilled.

The film can be viewed here

New York Glamour

American arts and culture magazine New York Glamour recently contacted me about my practice. In the interview I share how living with the ordeal of viral keratitis led me to research the wider concerns over advances in DNA sequencing and regenerative medicine at Imperial College, London. Discovering that science is harnessing the power of the virus from whichI have suffered all my life in engineering cures for cancer, led to my doctoral thesis proposal of the Viral Sublime.

The sublime has its origins in the ancient world and yet it remains a symptomatically modern aesthetic. In 2013 in one of my sketchbooks I scribbled, ‘ the world is increasingly likely to see a major even or pandemic in the twenty-first century’. The concept of a Viral Sublime is being refreshed and reinvigorated for a post-Romantic age when the world is under such cataclysmic threat, as SARS-CoV-2 forces a solitude on our atomised lives that many would rather avoid. 

Problems of the body are universal, so through encompassing layers of glaze over time, intermingled with smearing and daubing of colour in conjunction with imagining, sensing, memory and perceiving, my practice has become defined by the process through which I make sense of my lived bodily experience. For the full interview click here:

Suzi Morris in conversation with Lisa Takahashi

During lockdown I was invited by Jackson’s to talk about my practice and contribution to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can read the full interview here:

THE VIRAL SUBLIME

As the world bows down in the face of such uncertainty with every conversation leading to COVID-19 it appears that as pandemics go, the viral sublime today has acquired a sense of additional urgency. The ‘sublime’ is in essence a term used to describe extraordinary experiences which overwhelm us, engendering a sense of awe. Through my recent affiliation with Imperial College London, I have witnessed with admiration, the complexity of the ways in which scientists engineer treatments and vaccines to counteract viral attacks ; many scientists devoting their entire lives to understanding these entities. 

I am increasingly being asked about my investigations and proposal of The Viral Sublime from an artist’s perspective , so I am making it more readily accessible in the belief that even if it can make a minutiae difference in raising awareness and respect for the power of viruses, then it is worthwhile. It has been my own lifelong battle with viral keratitis which lies at the genesis of my interest in the unseen and in many cases, unknown entities. 

The Viral Sublime draws upon a combination of history, theoretical concerns and multiple collaborations with scientists and doctors. It can be viewed here:  

All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, without prior permission. ©Suzi Morris 2017. 

BEYOND the BODY

Upcoming exhibition of new work

'The Residency' film screening at Everyman Cinema, Baker Street, London

Produced by Fact Not Fiction Films; Suzi Morris, co-founder of The Residency with leading brush manufacturer Da Vinci, introduces four other artists who were selected to take part in a ten day residency, which culminated in a public exhibition at the Atelier-und Galeriehaus Defet in the city of Nuremberg. The documentary, to be released shortly, follows the highs and lows of the artists as they journey through the many creative processes and challenges of being artists in residence. 

Artist and writer Yvonne Ayoub reviews the film here

Suzi Morris in conversation with Damaris Athene

In a step towards challenging the gender imbalance of the art world, artist and writer, Damaris Athene interviews Suzi Morris in her studio. In this conversation Morris discloses why her paintings insist on the contrast of sharpness of line set against blur, and how through delving more deeply into her painting, she discovered how the phenomenological experience of living with keratitis ignited an investigation into her practice into what cannot be seen with the naked human eye and what requires imaginary processes to make the invisible visible.

Morris reveals how a combination of history, theoretical concerns, collaborations with scientists and doctors, together with an exploration of the properties of oil paint has had a profound affect on her imagination. On reflection, these experiences seem to have fused together in forming decisions in her painting. Responding to the science of our time, art writer Cherry Smyth describes Morris’ paintings as taking us into ‘a far more than her’, an immensely rich seam of knowledge at a new turning-point in medical science which is rarely represented in visual art.

Read the full interview here