The sponsor of The Repository is artist Susan Malmstrom. Below are a few samples from some past series of works.
Beyond Words
Each work in this series began with a two-word phrase in current common usage amongst English-speaking North Americans. The compositions, while based on idioms used in contemporary culture, resonate through shared symbology, inviting endlessly varied individual interpretation. The staged construct was discarded after being photographed. The resultant photograph was manipulated and became the final print, differing markedly from the original collage. By expunging this first phase, a greater valence was given to the final print, in the way that historical photographs are often all that remains of a person or monument, imbuing a sense of sentimentality. This is also intended to invoke an eerie distortion since the time and space that the discarded collage once inhabited has been abandoned forever. This series was exhibited at Annapolis Royal Art Center Gallery, and Argyle Fine Art, Nova Scotia.
Deserted Toyshop
This series consists of twenty-two still life photographs, with each work a miniature staged image of different toys from my own collection (some owned since childhood). Each featured toy occupies its own specially designed tableau, in the tradition of the Victorian-era diorama. The photos are presented in a variety of ornate framing, adding to the theatrical nature of the work.
Toys have served as anthropomorphized symbols and stand-ins for childhood, growth, and memory throughout the spectrum of Western contemporary culture—from the threatening swan puppet of Angela Carter’s novel, The Magic Toyshop—to “Rosebud,” the sled symbolizing Charles Foster Kane’s lost happiness in the film Citizen Kane. The tiny denizens occupying these images strive to bring their own personalities to life within the context of their magic realist surroundings. This series was exhibited at Argyle Fine Art Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Design for Divination/Petit Lenormand Still Lifes
Marie Anne Adelaide Lenormand (1772–1843) was a professional fortune-teller during the era of Napoleon, who claimed to have served as personal adviser to such luminaries as Empress Josephine and Czar Alexander. She was also said to have served as cartomancer (card reader) to some of the most famous personalities of the French Revolution, such as Robespierre and Marat. Her famous cards, however, were not of her own design; they were, in fact, the work of a German businessman and parlor games designer, Johann Kaspar Hechtel (1771-1799). His creation became known as the Petit Lenormand deck, after its most famous user.
These images are part of an ongoing project that will eventually consist of 36 works, exploring all of the imagery of the original Lenormand deck. I have combined the symbolism of the original game with some of the more contemporary translations of the cards’ meanings.
Odd Jobs
The figures of Brandt Eisner and Susan Malmstrom’s collaborative series Odd Jobs labor at their occupations in distorted, hyper-real settings. For each image, the artists offer their take on what troubling dreams these characters — all of whom are portrayed by Eisner — might experience. In addition to their own occupational hazards, the characters also face various social and environmental disasters that currently confront waking life in contemporary society. The artists originally received funding for the series from Arts Nova Scotia in 2014, and the NS Art Bank purchased two works for its collection in 2015. The third installation of this series was on view in 2019 at MMFI Gallery at the Marigold Cultural Center in Truro, NS.
