Susan Napack

The work of Susan Napack delves into the realm of the deeply personal and the visually entrancing, revealing both an archivist’s mania for order in a chaotic world
and her fascination with the infinite possibilities of seeing. At times, her use of collage calls to mind the enigmatic assemblages of Joseph Cornell but without
the surrealist overtones; Napack’s evocation of nostalgia is subtle and further complicated by the layering of images and tenses. Nearly every object and every
work undergoes an interpretation, often through a reprographic medium, only to be re-shot or scanned or imaged and cast again in yet another new form. We begin to wonder which came first: the hand or the glove, the wishbone or the wish, her grandmother’s pink nightdress or a legacy. Process and concept are inseparable as she plays with her objects, her ideas, her past work, and her past, all the while
asking herself: what if?

In Napack’s work, the multiple does not represent sameness or repeatability,
but a key that discloses idiosyncrasies and nuance. Likewise, her recurring motifs —
wishbones, gloves, reproductive imagery — do not come with an easy explanation
as she subverts their conventional message through manual and photographic
manipulation. In doing so, she reclaims them from the domain of fetish and
symbolism.