Exhibition “Resonance” – Suzan Drummen

“Resonance” is an installation art work of 7 by 8.5 meters, presented in the 2023 Chengdu Biennale from 16 July to 22 November 2023.

Thanks to the support of Chengdu Art Museum, Stimuleringsfonds, Mondriaan Fonds.

Stendhal effect or Stendhal’s syndrome is a condition involving excitement and confusion, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty. Tears can occur when a viewer has a vested interest in perceiving/understanding an artwork yet they find that they cannot understand. It is readily applicable to especially art interactions and installations. The same progression can be found in reactions to the mimetic content of numerous Romantic, Renaissance, and Baroque paintings, which somehow pose a theme or scene that challenges the viewer. In every instance there is some manner of expectation, some discrepancy and some adjustment of perception, ideas, and feelings. The installations of Suzan Drummen offer a frame for organizing numerous contextual factors in experience and will evoke emotional arousal. The work is most powerful when it has a large volume, when it fills a whole space and allows visitors to physically surround themselves with the sparkling patterns. Being a real part of the work increases the impact and visual stimulation and realize the resonance.

Suzan Drummen creates works of painting, video, photography, installation and public art. Those works are the continuous research and practice of space, illusion, colors, and optical refractions. Her works have been exhibited in art museums and public spaces all over the world such as: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen Rotterdam, Bonnefanten Museum Maastricht, Museum Bommel van Dam Venlo, European Parlement Brussel, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam etc.

Specially her crystal monumental creations fascinated worldwide audience. All crystals seem to be vitalized and organically combined into a work. From a distance, it seems to be a clear and orderly pattern, but if you move closer, you will feel the visual challenge and perception limit due to the complicated details and multi-faceted refraction.The twinkling surfaces, the colour contrasts, the use and reuse of repetitive themes are characteristic of Suzan Drummen’s work. Everything keeps returning in a different form: in different materials or on a different scale. Works endlessly mirror each other. Whether painted or filmed, stuck on walls or layed out on floors, the viewer is always faced with an abundance of sensory perceptions. The polymorphously shaped oeuvre circles around that focal point of perception, referring back to itself.

The eyes will never get a rest. There are visual stimuli everywhere. In all of Suzan Drummen’s work, from the very beginning onward, within the sensory perceptions a maximum duality is sought. When viewing a work the viewer sees two opposing forces. On the one hand he is submerged in a visually intoxicating world by the effect of the radiance, light, colour and rhythm that seems to want to abduct him to a heavenly place. On the other hand the specific locations, the various observation points, the concrete material and the substantial contrasts lead him back to his own perception so that he consciously sees what is intoxicating him. 

Suzan Drummen hopes that her work offers more than the visually perceptible, but that is always the starting point. Looking at art is a complex process. The first uninhibited look is quickly replaced by a search for meaning. We try to understand and give meaning to what we see. But she would like this open-minded uninhibited moment to last as long as possible. This open-mindedness and the openness of that first glance is essential, to celebrate, condense and accentuate the world around us.  

“Time Gravity – 2023 Chengdu Biennale”, guided by the Chengdu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Broadcast-TV, and Tourism and organized by the Chengdu Art Museum from 16 July to 22 Nov 2023. Spanning two landmark art museums with a total area of over 70,000 sqm, the exhibition showcases 476 artworks by 235 artists from 22 countries and regions. Fan Di’an, Chairman of China Artists Association, is the Academic Committee Director, Wang Shaoqiang, Director of Guangdong Museum of Art, is the Chief Curator, and Lu Peng, art historian, serves as the Artistic Director. Curators team including Wu Hongliang, President of Beijing Fine Art Academy; Zhang Zikang, Director of CAFA Art Museum, etc. International curators include Philip Dodd, former President of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, and Philipp Ziegler, Head of the Curatorial Department at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe.