Opening Reception: Friday, July 11, 5-7pm
Susan Lirakis | Exhibition Statement Susan Lirakis elevates ordinary moments with a sense of reverence. She presents her photographic images using various techniques, including gelatin silver prints, cyanotypes, pigment prints, and some adorned with gold or silver leafing. In this collection, she explores the nature of memory: Is a memory altered simply because it has been photographed and memorialized? Are we truly observing a memory, or are we creating a new one? Additionally, what thoughts, experiences, and memories do viewers bring to this experience? The images may take on a universal quality through techniques such as using “toy” cameras, camera movement, blurred imagery, or the application of intentional “defects.” Some photographs were made years ago; do we perceive or feel them differently when they are reinterpreted using various presentation techniques or in relationship to other works? Several images incorporate a mirror in the camera, allowing us to look forward while simultaneously reflecting backward, capturing a sense of being in the present moment. Does this dual perspective change our view of the present or how we perceive time? Does it illustrate how the past influences our understanding of the present and our outlook on the future? The use of blurred and interpretive imagery prompts us to contemplate the kind of mirror we are in this context.
Biography | Susan Lirakis has been making photographs since she was six years old when she was given a camera on the occasion of her baptism. Although the camera in her hands has changed over the years, it has rarely left them. She uses vision to orient herself and to make sense of the world. Photography has been a means of discovery, creation, and expression for her. Susan’s work has been supported through the NH State Council of the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, the Clowes Foundation, and the McLaughlin Residency Fellowship.
Artist Statement | Susan Lirakis explores how we create our world through what we see, interpret, and remember. She maintains a daily practice of looking at and questioning how we are in this world: how do we inhabit our bodies and move through space? How do we develop our voices? How do we draw breath into our lungs to make our next creation, to be inspired? How do we commit to life? Lirakis explores these concerns with the act of photographing, making images; and celebrating our lives, our connections, and our belonging, with this imagery. She does this with silver gelatin prints, archival pigment prints, gold and silver leafing, and cyanotype prints. With reverence, she sees the so-called ordinary as treasured moments.
