Providence College Studio Art Professors Organize A Gem Of A Show
As a junior studio art minor, I was very excited to speak with and explore Providence College Painting Professor Susanna Koetter’s group exhibition“What Would Artist Do?” on view now in downtown Providence. Our conversation was a great opportunity to learn more about Koetter’s artistic practice as well as her friendship with artistic collaborators Heather McPherson (PC painting professor) and Daniella Ben-Bassat. Koetter is a jack of many trades in the art world. She first found love in painting, then became infatuated with printmaking, and now she has begun a new relationship with the art of ceramics. This is Koetter’s first show featuring her ceramic work, which adds an additional detail of vulnerability to the show.
Taylor Maguire [TM] :Can you tell me a bit about how this show came together?
Susanna Koetter [SK]: Last winter, Fortnight [a bar in Providence] hosted this Holiday Market pop-up, which was the first time I produced ceramics en masse. My background is in painting and printmaking, and ceramics are still relatively new to me, but now it’s all that I do. Daniella [one of the artists in the show] was also in the sale and we realized how much of an incredible physical space it is. When planning this current show, I inquired with the people at Fortnight and they were totally open to the idea. There are certain mythologies about art making that make it seem, I don’t know, mysterious and magical– and there are those moments–but so much of it is remarkably unglamorous and tedious, and simply comes down to just making yes or no decisions. This show was basically a result of that– asking, delegating, and deciding.
TM: Have you collaborated or shown with Heather and Daniella before?
SK: I worked with Daniella at the Fortnight Holiday pop-up last year, in December of 2021. With Heather, it’s tough to say, because we work together in the Providence College ceramics studio. Sharing a studio space like that will often foster a collaborative spirit, where we are checking out, admiring, and getting excited about each other’s work. It’s so fun to just spitball ideas, and think of possibilities with process- I think this is especially so because neither Heather nor I have a technical training in ceramics, so it always feels like a big question mark as to what will happen, and is also what brings us back. So it kind of feels like we work together all the time, but this show is the first structured opportunity where all three of us have come together.
TM:What was your favorite part about having a show with Heather McPherson and Daniella Ben-Bassat?
SK: I don’t want to toot all of our horns, but why the heck not? I think that despite the fact that our bodies of work were not made in relation to each other, I think it works really coherently. And that might speak to our individual sensibilities that make each of us who we are as artists, but also because we are close friends and we all are always in conversation with each other about our work, artwork or our lives in general. My favorite part was the effortlessness with which everything came together, visually. There were no pieces that felt out of place, which also presented challenges because there was so much work to choose from. Daniella and Heather are much stronger curators, in my opinion. I respect how they are able to arrange things and decide if they look good together on a wall, and I prefer my work beside theirs than all alone. I really appreciate Heather’s capacity to navigate the curatorial process with openness and flexibility, while also being really decisive about things I am not as familiar with (for example, lighting). I also think this is what makes her a great teacher. Daniella is honestly one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, and has a brilliant eye and hand for making both paintings and graphics. Perhaps humor isn’t the most tangible of strengths, but it is crucial for the spirit. We had a lot of laughs throughout this process, and I hope this isn’t the last time I work with either or both of them.
TM:Do you have a favorite piece in the show?
SK: It’s really hard, so I will choose one for each of us. For Daniella, I love Pleasant Hill. There’s a confident, almost garish quality to Daniella’s hand, which I love, which is met with such a gentle palette. It’s the painting of hers I want most in my life, and the desire to possess is not something I often feel about art objects. I also love Heather’s work, all of it, but– I gotta say–there is just something that really hits about these ceramic pieces. It’s hard to choose. It has to be Heather’s porcelain pieces because they all seem to connect to each other, and to her paintings. This is my favorite body of work because these were the last pieces of hers to be hung up, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to hang them. I think part of what I love about them is that there is a sense of vulnerability in that uncertainty. They reveal the experimental nature that is at the heart of her practice.
Which of your pieces is your favorite?
I think for me it is this piece Diana of Love, a plate in honor of Lady Diana. This is an image from the casket of Lady Diana, who represents so much of what I resent, disdain, and also what opens my heart to empathy and compassion. We are speaking English right now. It is a colonizer’s tongue, and it’s also the only language that I can speak fluently. There are some concepts in cognitive science about how language is the vehicle that forms thoughts, so the thoughts are under the structure of imperialism, made through the structure of imperialism, which is a system now that even my thoughts cannot escape. The royal family’s whole schtick is rooted in a structured racism, a legacy we understand deeply as Americans. So I hold a lot of deep criticism towards the British– and yet…I love Lady Diana. And how could I not? She was the martyr of the royal family, a 19 year old woman who married a man 13 years her senior who didn’t love her back, and who loved another woman for the entirety of their marriage. when she was married to a man who was 13 years her senior who didn’t love her back. She took her role as a public facing figure seriously, and revealed her interior pain in such a way that it was healing for others. On a personal level, Diana has also been a placeholder for my own grief, and the experience of my father’s death five years ago after a long illness, where so much of my life was bearing witness to losing him. What’s remarkable is that Diana holds this place for so many–that is part of her sacrifice–she became a placeholder for so many people’s pain.
TM:Who has inspired you in your creative work? ( other artists or people who have been influential in your life)
SK: My friends are my greatest influences. Then my parents, who were both architects. They were trained before the age of computers, and there is a certain type of discipline that comes along with that–the devotion and discipline to draw through your ideas. There are too many artists I revere. But these days, I’m thinking a lot about Morandi, Paul Thek, Manet (always), and Rosemary Mayer.
TM:What medium do you most enjoy working with?
SK: Painting will always be in my heart. It is the center of the wheel where all the spokes come from. Printmaking forms the spokes of this wheel; it is how I structure my practice. And then everything else fills the gap. There is a vulnerability with working in ceramics because I barely know what I’m doing. But I think there is a beauty in uncertainty, when the zeal of discovery has not yet been cast into the judgment of error. No mistakes, only learning. That is why ceramics is my favorite at the moment.
TM:What kind of music/podcasts do you like to listen to while you work?
SK: I used to listen to a lot of music and now I don’t as much anymore and will sit in silence and work. But I go back and forth. Alice Coltrane has remained playing throughout periods of relative silence. I have begun to lean into more podcasts–one of my favorites is done by my friends called Best Mistakes.
Taylor Maguire is currently a Junior at Providence College who is studying as a Psychology Major, and minoring in both French and Studio Art with a concentration in ceramics. She was born and raised in New York City, and has always had an interest in working with people, and being involved in the art world.
Posted by Taylor Maguire ’24
