Suzi Garner

Suzi Garner is GlogauAIR resident
from October, 2022 to December, 2022

We asked our online Resident Suzi Garner to tell us about her work. The result is “Four Questions”, an intimate portrait about being a woman, a mother and an artist. How these sides intertwine and coexist, how she manages to let them coexist.

Meet the Artist

With four questions, Suzi Garner guides us through her practice, combining her own natural processes as a mother and an artist, and rituals of resilience found in knobcone pine and Douglas fir trees.

Statement

I collaborate with individuals, communities and the environment to create situations/processes which culminate in video and installation. I see my work as a vehicle for evolving my relationship with the community and the environment. Recent projects include interactive map making, shadow theater and video projections in collaboration with residents of a homeless camp along the I-580 interstate freeway in California; and the creation of a painting, burning, and installation ritual using my breast milk in collaboration with burnt forest in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, California.

Suzi Garner

GlogauAIR Project

For this project I am developing a process of using my breast milk in a painting, burning, and collage cycle/ritual. Using video projection and painted paper sculpture woven with salvaged wood from a forest fire, I wish to draw a parallel between my creative process and the cycle of forest fire and regrowth in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park, California. The project will culminate with a 3-part video installation depicting natural cycles of my body/breastfeeding and of the forest, as well as a large-scale sculpture made of paper, breast milk, and burnt wood.

Installation and Video

CV Summary

Community Art Projects and Public Installations

June 2021 – March 2022. The People Are the Place, a community art project created in collaboration with six unhoused artists from the Ashby Shellmound encampment and Street Spirit Newspaper. The project culminated in a public installation including found object sculptures and a six channel video projection in MLK Civic Center Park in Berkeley, as well as the March 2022 edition of Street Spirit newspaper. This project received a grant from the City of Berkeley Civic Arts Program.
March 2020 – May 2021. Why Aren’t We There Yet?, community shadow theater project created in collaboration with unhoused communities in Berkeley. The project culminated in a public, mult-media installation at 2200 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA. This project was funded by a grant from the City of Berkeley Civic Arts Program.
January 2017 – ongoing. Homeless Shadows, series of illuminated tent installations created in collaboration with residents of homeless camps in the Bay Area. This project received a grant from the Awesome Foundation.
February 2020, Community Makes Anywhere Home, live video projection installation at First They Came for the Homeless encampment in Berkeley, CA
December 2018 Inhabitations, community shadow theater project and video installation created in collaboration with residents of Berkeley Food and Housing Project Men’s Shelter, Berkeley, CA
September 2018 Share Your Thoughts on Homelessness, interactive illuminated tent installation created in collaboration with First They Came for the Homeless, Figment Art Festival, Oakland CA
December 2017 Empower our Needs! Interactive multi-projector installation at Old City Hall as part of a fundraiser for First They Came for the Homeless in Berkeley, CA
June 2017 Revenge Against the Corporate Aliens, Shadow puppet show created in collaboration with First They Came for the Homeless and the Bay Area Harmonica Club, Berkeley, CA

Performances and Exhibitions

September 2022 MOTHRA Artist Residency Exhibition, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, Ontario
August 2022 Blood and Milk, multi-media performance with breast milk, fire and live audio feed, Richmond, CA
May-June 2022 World of Co Online Exhibition, World of Co
January 2019 Creativity Unhoused, group show, Expressions Gallery, Berkeley
June 2018 Nine Streams, Video installation and spoken word performance, Berkeley, CA
February 2014 The Spring Orchestra, solo exhibition, Sticky Art Lab, Berkeley, CA
January 2013 The Lonely Langur, solo exhibition and book launch, Manzi Art Gallery, Hanoi, Vietnam

Grants and Residencies

September 2022 MOTHRA Artist Residency, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
April 2022 World of Co Artist Residency, Sofia, Bulgaria (online)
June 2021 Berkeley Public Art Works Projects Grant from the City of Berkeley Civic Arts Program
March – May 2021 Artist in Residence, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
June 2020 City of Berkeley Civic Arts Program Grant for Individual Artists
January 2020 Awesome Foundation Award
August 2017 Artist in Residence, Thuy An Rehabilitation Centre for People with Disabilities, Ba Vi, Vietnam
June 2012 January 2013 Resident Outreach Artist, Cat Ba Langur Conservation Program, Hanoi, Vietnam
April 2012 Artist in Residence, Compeung Residency Program, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Education