Song of the Cicada
Suzanne Archer
Nicholas Thompson Gallery
‘Song of the Cicada’ affixes Suzanne Archer’s place in the canon of Australian art history. She has long offered a tantalising jolt of disquiet coupled with a zest for life. This title arrived on the 50th anniversary of her first exhibition and the latest commercial show with Nicholas Thompson Gallery who introduces the text citing the critical dualities of her work; life and death, abstraction and figuration, and as we later learn, fantasy and lived-experience, comedy and pathos.
Sioux Garside intimately relays Archer’s creative journey with chapters on her heady practice, biographical and exhibition information. The author emphasises the artist’s preoccupation with primordial time, whether that be through Greek mythology, ancient Egypt or the Aztecs, in which artistry also meant a profound understanding and ability to communicate the raw human condition, a viscous topic some avoid in contemporary life. A similar summons is placed on objects, a pillow as a mask, which of course can link back to mythology in myriad ways. The dissection of her practice is beautifully bound in place with threads from the artist’s diaries over the years, bringing another interior dialogue to an appreciation of the personal works.
‘Intuition is her guide to tapping an inner wildness, so as to make expansive, imaginative leaps into metaphorical image making,’ Garside concludes.
