3col Susana Reisman Photosculpture Ocean.jpg

Susana Reisman, “Photosculpture (ocean),” 2004–05, inkjet print on canvas, 10 by 2 by 9 inches. ©Susana Reisman.

FOR 3-30

SUSANA REISMAN, DEATH BIZARRE OPEN AT CPW MARCH w/1cut

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WOODSTOCK, N.Y. — The Center for Photography at Woodstock will present two exhibitions:  “Death Bizarre,” a group show, and solo exhibition, “Susana Reisman: A Sense of Departure.” Both are on view March 31 through May 28. An opening reception and artist talk with Susana Reisman will be Saturday, March 31, from 5 to 7 pm (talk begins at 5:30 pm).

Inspired by Mary Roach’s best-selling book, Stiff — The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and her own fascination with the macabre, curator/artist/educator Colette Copeland has organized the exhibition “Death Bizarre,” which features 18 artists working in photography, video and installation, whose work examines people, places and objects associated with death from a conceptual and metaphorical perspective.

Combining photography and sculpture, Toronto-based artist Susana Reisman creates handcrafted works that seeks to address the ways in which people experience and interpret what they see and encounter, read, construct, classify, categorize and evaluate the visual world.

The exhibition features two bodies of work by Reisman, which display her exploration through both the rejection of and return to traditional photographic practices.

Beginning in 2004, Reisman set about to reconfigure the framework and conditions in which one normally perceives the photographic image.

She creates photosculptures in which the “photograph” is no longer a flat representation but rather a three-dimensional object achieved by printing an image on canvas, cutting it into one-inch strips and then “wrapping” them into organic, shell-like structures. Reisman thus opens a dialogue through which these “photographs’” viewers are confronted with the materiality of the photographic image as it becomes the object’s skin, or a delicate and impermanent surface wrapping around space.

Accompanying her photo-sculptures is her most recent body of work, “Mapping and Mediation.” Following her de/reconstructive process in the photo-sculptures, Reisman began to focus on the forms themselves — abandoning the photographic image entirely.

The center is at 59 Tinker Street. For more information, www.cpw.org or 845-679-9957.