Susie Hamilton in 'The Shared Now': Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Germany

A selection of Susie Hamilton's artworks from the 'Underground' series are included in the group show 'The Shared Now' at Kunstmuseum Magdeburg in Germany. 

'These works began in late 2023 when I made journeys on the District Line and did quick drawings of seated figures, distorting them through speed of drawing. Tube travellers became moon-eyed with stick arms or hands like hooks and I liked the way they seemed rickety, outlandish or menacing. Their eccentric shapes, gestures and expressions also reminded me of the pathos, ghostliness or grotesqueness of figures in different kinds of mythological underworld. And these qualities became more noticeable in my subsequent work on cardboard and canvas. My oil sticks, acrylic, pastel and charcoal attacked the figures through intrusive lines, poured paint and flung blots so that human structure and identity began to collapse. My spoiling and messing indicated my subjects’ fragility with the struggle between a figure trying to exist and materials which were trying to undo it.' Susie Hamilton 

'What does it mean to live in the here and now today - and at the same time experience life differently? Against the backdrop of multiple crises – ecological, political, social – the constant renegotiation between art and life is becoming more and more the subject of art.

Painting, video, sculpture or photography, are about the fragility of freedom and humanity, personal commitment and responsibility. They show that certainties are not neutral, but arise from subjective points of view. The "now" does not appear as a stable state, but as a fragile, shared moment - characterized by individual voices, attitudes and perceptions. "The Shared Now" invites you to understand the present as something diverse and to rethink your position in it.' Kunstmuseum Magdeburg Press Release