Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck is the first major survey of the work of LA-based artist Susan Silton. Comprising over 150 works that include participatory and multi-media installations, photographic, video, and audio works, early graphic pieces, and textual interventions, the exhibition highlights Silton as a key figure in West Coast conceptual, feminist, and queer genealogies of art and design. 

Diving into the Wreck takes its title from a 1972 poem written by Adrienne Rich (1929-2012), a poet and essayist active in feminist and lesbian literary circles. In it, Rich narrates the experiences of a diver who plumbs oceanic depths to explore an unnamed “wreck.” It is unclear whether the “wreck” the diver seeks might be that of her own life, her coming to consciousness within the feminist movement, or a fruitful relationship long after its end. Even amidst such ambiguity, the diver points out the power of language to guide her actions and orientation to the world, stating:  

“I came to explore the wreck.

The words are purposes.
The words are maps.”  

Rich’s poem is a touchstone for assessing Silton’s multifaceted practice–one that pressurizes the limits and possibilities of text, vision, perception, and participation in the process of becoming part of the social and political world. Such is the structure of Silton’s artistic practice as well, which recursively builds upon a collection of concerns, and, by extension, suggests how political life might be deepened by repeated, searching engagement. Focusing upon the themes of body and voice, perspective and vision, graphics and multiples, and the production of public memory, hers is a practice that is alive to the world, insisting upon both contemplation and participation.

Making its debut alongside the exhibition is Civilized Voices, a site-specific public project inspired by a series of billboards erected by Aline Barnsdall at Barnsdall Park in the 1940s. As an homage to Barnsdall’s iconoclastic use of billboards for social and political messaging, Silton has commissioned five Los Angeles-area poets (Rocío Carlos, Erin Marie Lynch, Lynne Thompson, and Terry Wolverton) to write new works that will be featured on five hand-painted billboards sited during the exhibition among the pine trees in front of the gallery.

Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck is curated by Andy Campbell with organizational and curatorial support from Nancy Meyer, LAMAG Curator. Support for this exhibition has been provided by an Infinite Expansion Grant from The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts, The Aurora-Viburnum Foundation, The Shifting Foundation, Kim and Keith Allen-Niesen, The Barnsdall Art Park Foundation, the Plum Foundation, individual donors, and the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Susan Silton: Diving into the Wreck is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston (who originated the exhibition) and Inventory Press, supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Aurora-Viburnum Foundation, and The Shifting Foundation. The nearly 300-page publication is edited by Andy Campbell and includes contributions by Adrienne Rich, Ramón García, Amelia Jones, Natilee Harren, Dana Johnson, Susanna Phillips Newbury, Dodie Bellamy, David Evans Frantz, Mady Schutzman, and Karen Moss. In addition to featuring 200 images, the volume will also include a special artist edition from Silton’s series By power of suggestion, which in favorable circumstances becomes instruction. The catalogue will be available for purchase onsite and on artbook.com/D.A.P. (Distributed Art Publishers).