Blatant statements may be relatively rare in the artistic vocabulary, but Susan Cianciolo doesn’t shy away from them in her fourth solo show at Bridget Donahue. After a makeshift catwalk at the show’s opening, two garments emblazoned with the handwritten phrase “GOD IS A JACKET” were hung on hangers and suspended in the air by thick wires, clustering the 28 outfits close together. Run 15 (1995–2024). Like her earlier upcycled ready-to-wear ensembles for her ongoing RUN project, these wildly textured and patchworked garments look as if they could have been made by Cianciolo and her collaborators at any point during their decades-long practice.
Eventually, pieces from her first RUN collection made their way into the collection; fabrics reappear, some of the same ones she offers in her workshops, which take place in homes, galleries, and more. One particularly gorgeous ensemble was a vest dyed in a soft peach wash, accessorized with a necklace made from a scrap of lined notebook paper as a pendant. A handwritten declaration unlikely to be noticed by anyone other than a detail-oriented audience (the kind of audience art deserves, but rarely gets) betrays a reserved, sideways attitude: “This exhibition is to celebrate higher dimensions. We are going to the fifth.” How you interpret this is up to you. The only watery, hard-to-read typo does nothing to dilute the conviction expressed. We are teeth I’m going. If you’d like, please come with me. Such premises, marked by her characteristic lightness of touch, chime with the rekindled debate on spirituality in art, questioning the paradigm of rationalism.
include Run 15The exhibition is organized into four related but loosely divided sections of work, each accompanied by a separate work: “Thank You Pine Trees” (2023–24), 19 paintings in watercolor and acrylic, previously reproduced in an artist book, depict trees in the Maine landscape; Game of Life (2024) and several more recent works that the artist calls “tapestry,” appear in a section called “Lightworkers.” Spirituality has been a pervasive feature, if not the soul, of Cianciolo’s previous shows; her 2017 solo exhibition at Bridget Donahue featured a work titled Tent-Like Structures. Practicing Prayer (2016-17) Meanwhile, the press release for the 2020 show included an excerpt from the New Testament of the Bible.
Here, you can find wall hangings that have been sewn or painted. 5th Dimensional Lightworkers (2024) is presented as a depiction of the “realm of angels on earth”, according to Cianciolo’s exhibition text. The tapestries feature scraps and wandering marks improvised on polyester brocade and cotton, materials that would otherwise easily have been discarded by people who, like Cianciolo, see no divine potential in anything or anywhere. These works may fall outside the main definition of “tapestry”, but their complex gestures made of many different parts are another kind of “tapestry”. If God is the jacket, the dress is the map, and finding the way means staging an installation in which time is nonlinear, like a clock face without hands. Its circle is the “O” of the word “WORKERS” written large on the fabric.
“Susan Cianciolo: Lightworker – RUN 15 – The Game of Life – (Thank You Pine Trees)” is on exhibit at Bridget Donahue in New York until July 27th.
Main image: Susan Cianciolo, I am thankful for the pine trees. 2023–24, 19 watercolors and acrylics on paper. Courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue, New York, photo: Gregory Calideo
