Susan Stockwell

Susan Stockwell-  'is a sculptor who makes subtly political work about materials and their inherent content and histories, with injustice and inequality as overarching themes. Her work addresses political, social, ecological and feminist issues, using her trademark motifs and metaphors of maps, stacks, dresses, money, recycled computer components, paper, rubber and other everyday materials and products.'

Going through an article I found called 'Maps for Navigating to a New Perspective' written by Sylvia Gold in 2010, I came across Susan Stockwell, in this exhibition she turned a Victorian-era government maps of Scotland into a 19th-century gown, and named it 'Highland dress'  

Described as 'elegant and eerie' by the writer of the article. The exhibition was at the Katonah museum of art.  This dress was one of many she did as part of a series of sculptures.  Others being; Money dress,  Creative compass,  Love me tender, Colonial dress, Cartographic dress, Empire dress, and Coffee dress. 

Stockwell was born in Manchester, England.  She attained her Masters of Art at the royal college of art and her Bachelors of Art at Sheffield Hallam University in fine art. She now teaches fine art as a senior lecturer at the University of East London.  Her work addresses political, social, ecological and feminist issues, using her trademark motifs and metaphors of maps, stacks, dresses, money, recycled computer components and other everyday materials and products.

She quite likes her installations, Going through her website under the tab of work, it shows I believe all the work she has done, from 1990 to 2013. One of the pieces that stuck out to me the most was 'Flood, York' an 8m high, recycled computer component, site specific installation, exhibited at St Mary's York. I'm not entierly sure why I liked it so much, I just found it quite interesting, it was meant to be a take on the spire of the church, in an explanation of her piece she explains that it 'references ideas of alters as spaces for prayer and worship' and 'The title 'Flood' refers to York's flooding problem, to floods of information and floods of technology'   

Flood, York (2010)

Another piece she did was called 'Pattern of the World' which was exhibited at the V&A Museum in London. In the exhibition 'Mapping the Imagination'. It shows a map of the world made out of dress patterns, pinned together to form a Mercator projection* of the world.

* Mercator Projection - is a cylindrical map projection presented by the Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569.

As exhibited

For those who want to read about the exhibit click here

Other than mainly her work which is always different and has references to political problems, there isn't really much about her life online, but she her work is interesting to look at.