Armitstead, C. (2020) 'Vivian Suter: the rainforest-dwelling artist who paints with fish glue, dogs and mud'

(Armitstead, 2020)

Vivian Suter at Camden Arts Centre 2020, https://camdenartcentre.org/whats-on/tintins-sofa#images

“At the time I saw it as just a catastrophe,” she says, “but as they started drying, the colours began to come out, and I realised that I had to start working with nature and not against it. (Armitstead, 2020)

I found my interest in Vivian’s work, firstly because of the physical appearance and installation works. The set of paintings she exhibited in Camden Art Centre was unique and immersive to the audience. It is not present painting in a way to look at paintings but to walk inside the scenes, to sense and inhale the gesture of the environment. The way of installing the work gives another insight into how we see the painting, at the same time I felt a sense of intimacy in between the hanging canvas. I see the relationship between each of the canvases, they are suggesting a dialogue within and inviting the audience to sneak into their composition of them.

Free … one of Vivian Suter’s canvases hung outside the Guatemala home she shares with mother Elisabeth Wild. Photograph: Vivian Suter. Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels

A large canvas dries in the ‘laager’. Photograph: David Regen/Courtesy the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels

Since then, she has embraced the unpredictability of her adopted home, actively encouraging the intrusion of the elements into her practice. Her unprimed canvases are left outdoors to absorb the traces of falling leaves, rainwater, dirt, passing animals and the marks of her dogs, Bonzo, Nina and Tintin, imprinting the daily life of the forest onto the surface of each work. (Vivian Suter at Camden Arts Centre 2020, https://camdenartcentre.org/whats-on/tintins-sofa#images )

Suter makes works with, not of, the landscape, she explains: “It’s all around me, and I don’t see much further; it is enclosed, but outside.” Are Suter’s works ecological? Yes, but they are not about ecology. They are ecology. (Birnbaum, 2022)

“but they are not about ecology. They are ecology.”

(Birnbaum, 2022)

Attuned to the ecological crisis

Vivian Suter was entranced by the beauty and remoteness of Lake Atitlan, living with her mother, who is also a collages artist, Elisabeth Wild, on a slope of a volcano, which is three hours drive from Guatemala City for over three decades. Vivian works in her backyard, where she allows and mentioned leaving her canvas outside for the weather to finish off.

It is an affirmation from more than the artist.

From the skies above, the decision was made to allow the painting free from the artist's hand.

The paintings themselves are no longer composed solely by Vivian, but by the surroundings around them.