Susannah Bettag

Susannah Bettag: Seeing the Obscure

By Scott A. Shields

Computer technology, consumer consumption, and nature's abundance - Susannah Bettag's paintings possess a cool urban aesthetic that responds to influences omnipresent in the cultural and social milieu of Northern California. Bettag's approach however is distinctive, in that she also brings women's identities to the fore, referencing sexuality, women's roles, and motherhood. "A sense of humor and cynicism are integral to the way my paintings are presented and the questions they ask," Bettag explains. "Tapping universal feminist themes, they question the roles women play and challenge viewers to examine how they view women, and, on another level, how they view themselves viewing women."

Built up in layers that both reveal and conceal, Bettag's paintings are exquisite, colorful objects that dazzle. Although serious at their core, the images, at least on the surface, are both literally and figuratively just plain fun. Sweet and attractive, with their crisp bands of bright paint and metal leaf, they come in delectable, intense colors and feature an abundance of cartoon-like shapes. They also reference nature, both real and invented, most often focusing on the microcosm of objects that normally escape our attention such as bacteria, larvae, worms, mushrooms, and small flowers, and sometimes consumer products. The titles, such as Dreaming Things that Never Were and Less True than Truth, More Real than Real, complement the surreal quality of the work, reinforcing the fact that Bettag's realms of fantasy and imagination are laden with contrasts.

Inspiration for the biomorphic, fanciful shapes in Bettag's paintings comes not only from nature and the artist's passion for color and decorative form, but also from the intense handiwork associated with traditional women's crafts, especially quilting and needlework. Her exploitation of pattern and women's crafts thus owes a debt to the Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s, which sought to break abstraction free from Minimalism and explore more decorative artistic products, especially those created by women.

A frequent character in Bettag's paintings is her adorable "Boo," who offers an intellectual reckoning with the culture of cuteness. Since the arrival of her twins, Bettag has found her own questioning nature assailed by the sweetness and charm of childhood clothes, toys, and accessories. With humor and wry wit she transforms the visual language of all things innocent into something far more adult. Invested with Bettag's attraction to dark comedy, baby Boo presents ever-fluid juxtapositions of good and evil, purity and guilt, comedy and horror. The familiar and comforting Boo is nevertheless placed in circumstances that are horrific and frightening. By mutating such saccharine perfection, the artist nods to the threats and dangers of today's world.

While the Boo paintings are alluring examples of Bettag's craft, the vinyl Boo sculptures are less about formal qualities than concept - a concept decidedly toy-like. When hundreds of Boos are assembled into an enormous, twenty-foot sculpture such as Drowning Without You(2007), there can be little doubt that the tiny personage has entered the realm of high art. But, when on its own, the maimed and wounded Boo begs the question whether this is really art or simply a twisted plaything for adults. The answer is both: an art-toy informed by mass-produced gadgets, television, and cartoons. Bettag has recently taken Boo's "cartoon" quality to a logical conclusion through the process of animation. Boo can now appear in any scenario that Bettag dreams up - and he does - encountering disquieting situations in surrealist realms of strange beauty.

Also lurking behind Boo are "adult" themes hiding within complex compositions and lush surfaces. Girl-on-girl images borrowed directly from hardcore pornography certainly reference traditional nudes and odalisques from art history, yet their overt sexuality is more shocking and blatant, especially when integrated into Bettag's sugar-coated world. Although many viewers are too awed by design and day-glow hues to notice, these titillating elements temper an otherwise unbridled riot of color and form. The artist's impulse to imbed and layer images long considered exploitative of women suggests Bettag's intellectual grappling with such depictions, as well as her desire to hide, and at the same time reveal, social taboos.

Although Boo's overt purity seems entirely at odds with these hardcore fantasies, the pairing creates an explosive collision of innocence and corruption, which becomes the thread that binds the artist's work together. It also makes the underlying premise abundantly clear. In her most recent paintings, Bettag begins to break down these barriers, emphasizing reproduction - both sexual and asexual - throughout her compositions. Balloon forms, insects, plants, and other previously innocuous graphic elements now divide, morph, and lay eggs across her sensuous surfaces. Even Boo undergoes binary fission, spawning more Boos and, by extension, a new generation of paintings and video art.



Scott A. Shields, Ph.D, is the Associate Director and Chief Curator at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA.