Susanne Melanie

Susanne Melanie Artist Statement

While physically aware of the fact of my visible stature at six feet and two inches tall, I often feel invisible, unnoticed and on the outside. The result is a sense of invincibility which removes self-consciousness because I feel as if no one sees me. This perception of invisibility has lead to an overpowering need to leave some kind of demarcation that I have been “here”.

I pursue this act of mark making in investigations in a variety of media and formal strategies allowing myself to create without the constraints of pursuing a singular style. Hand crafted bikinis made from wax paper, band-aids, aged bottle caps, or richly colored European wallpaper function to represent a confidence, a fragility, or a protective armor or potentially harmful defense.

The work I produce is self-referential and stakes a claim on my existence; the dualities of what I exhibit to the world, my outside and my inside, what I perceive you to see and what I perceive of myself, insanity and sanity, invisible and visible.


a few words about the intervention series

a series of photos documenting an intervention project. the project consists of sewing bikini's that are custom made to fit me. each is marked with a scarlet blood red "M" hand embroidered on the inside of each piece, top and bottom, representing the actual blood i used to spray on walls after i had shot up junk to mark my existence in the world. now, these bikinis are placed in the world to demarcate my existence. i photograph each intervention guerilla style, leaving the bikini behind to be found. these photos document each event.