Susan Goethel Campbell, "Aerial: Other Cities #4"
May 14, 2018
Susan Goethel Campbell, Aerial: Other Cities #4, 2012. Relief print with perforations.
The art of Susan Goethel Campbell illuminates her fascination with the intersection of the human environment and that of the natural. Aerial: Other Cities #4 is part of Aerials, a series of woodblock prints that portray with black and gray tones the urban landscape from a bird's-eye view. Handmade perforations trace the linear elements of the city while the swirl pattern that is inherent to the grained-down surface of the wood contributes to the invocation of atmospheric phenomena. In conjunction with the tonal palette, it plays the role of wind, fog, light pollution or other pollution that hangs in the air above a human conglomerate. Humans as wingless creatures achieve this perspective daily through the technology of air-travel. Goethel Campbell attained her images with snapshots of the view from her window seat on planes, placing directly in Aerials a pressing awareness of human interaction with the terrain. The punched holes that outline the cityscape allow light to pass through the wood, thus creating a tangible juxtaposition of man-made material and nature-made material that echoes the dualities found in the intersection of environments. This captured moment of a landscape that expands vastly beyond the ground straight below reminds viewers that these environments - natural or artificial - are ephemeral, a consequence caused by the innate system of things, but also more so caused by human intervention and activity.
Goethel Campbell’s studio produces an assorted array of artworks- from prints and books to sculpture and installation. Aerials was partially inspired by her previous work that was displayed at the Detroit Institute of Arts: Detroit Weather, 365 Days (2011), a video that encompasses the photo documentation of Detroit over 365 days. Goethel Campbell set up a webcam at the near top of the Fisher Building in New Center. At every minute, for 24 hours a day for an entire year, the webcam archived an image. Her interest in weather patterns and the topography of natural and artificial elements was instinctively manifested in this project.
Goethel Campbell received her MFA in printmaking from Cranbrook Academy of Arts. She has lectured and joined panels at a myriad of events, has served as visiting artist at various institutions, and taught at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit for fifteen years.
Written by Danielle Cervera Bidigare