Interview: Jeanne Susplugas

Jeanne Susplugas: Containers (MD), 2010. 50 x 70 cm. Markers on paper.

Could you make a short presentation of what you have made for this show?

As this is my first solo show in Denmark, I have chosen to display a selection of works that are very representative of my artistic practise. Like in all my other solo shows, it has been important to me to show that I work in different media. Therefore this exhibition consists of a combination of large macro photographs, drawings as well as a film, and an installation. As this diversity suggests, I am not that interested in the specific medium - rather in how it can support what I want to express. The last ten years I have more or less been focused on same theme, that revolves around medication and the body; all the things we use to look and feel better in order to live up to the social images of perfection. But it is also about alienation and obsessions, including everyday rituals like washing our face or our extreme attitudes towards ourselves.

This show is nevertheless a bit different than my previous ones. It is not only about the alienation connected to the use of medical and pills on a personal level, but likewise about the social problems arising with the worldwide trafficking of medication. For instance I have made a series of drawings depicting African women, who are carrying baskets of medicines on their heads. These works are based on images that I have found in magazines and on the internet, that show how medicine is sold in the streets without any regulation. And 60 % of it is fake medicine coming from places like China and Pakistan. Sometime the fake pills are made of harmless ingredients such as sugar, but other times they are filled with crushed glass. It is a huge problem, especially in Africa where a lot of kids have died because of infections.

The other series of drawings on show, is called Containers. The title refers to the little boxes that you get, when you buy pills in american pharmacies. Usually the containers have a little labels with the name of the medicine, but in my drawings the names are replaced by sentences that different writers have written about medicine. I especially try to find sentences that are either funny or different, for instance one writer has transformed the name of a medicine into a verb, so instead of writing "I take Lexomil", he writes "I lexomile". Lexomil is a very common type of medicine in France, so at first the sentences appear very funny, but then you realise that it is an outcome of an over-consumption, since we all know what it means.

When working with serious matter like this, it is important for me to try to keep a distance or to use humour. I don’t want to put myself in the position of a judge; I consider myself more as a witness to what is happening around me. That is also one of the reasons why, I have called the show Surrounded.

Jeanne Susplugas: Corridor, 2009. 180 x 120 cm. C-print.		Jeanne Susplugas: Box Profit, 2008. 180 x 120 cm. C-print.
Jeanne Susplugas: Disinfected, 2007. 120 x 80 cm. C-print.		Jeanne Susplugas: Eve, 2002. 180 x 120 cm. C-print.

Your works are very meticulously done and has kind of a perfect finish. How do you balance being critical and at the same time aesthetically pleasing?

Well, I don't think that the aesthetic of my works interrupts with the meaning of them. On the contrary it is part of it. Both my parents and my grandparents are researches in pharmacies, so you could say I have been raised within the world of medicine. I somehow find it a world of beauty. The people working in the labs and with medicine in general are in my view also dealing with aesthetics. When you see all the pharmaceutical packages and pill glasses, they actually always look quite beautiful as mean to make us buy the products. Because they look pretty, we unconsciously thinks that it must be good for us - even when it isn't. This schism I have adopted into my artistic practise. I wouldn't exactly call my images perfect, but I like them to have an enigmatic and sensual appearance. That is also why I like macro photography a lot. It is important to me that my viewer at first consider my works beautiful and seductive and then realises the darker content afterwards. This is also the case with my drawings. These have a childish touch. They look a bit like something from a colouring book with nice, bright colours, which adds to them a cuteness that contradicts their serious content. Therefore a strong aesthetic is very much part of my vision of art, in my view beauty can be related to both the repulsive and attractive.

Jeanne Susplugas: Sales woman in Dakar, 2008. 28 x 19 cm. Markers on paper.		Jeanne Susplugas: Sales woman in Djenne, 2008. 28 x 19 cm. Markers on paper.		Jeanne Susplugas: Sales woman in Bamako, 2008. 60x42 cm. Markers on paper.

As you mentioned before, you are working in many different media. What considerations do you make when choosing a medium for a specific work?

I think each media has its own capacity, and my choice is defined by the idea behind each work. Considering which medium to use helps me to clarify what I want to say and how I want to say it. For instance, when I did the drawings of the African women, I was shortly thinking of going to Africa to photograph myself, but then I decided not to go. It would have given the works the character of a reportage, and I was certainly not interested in that. To me, the medium of drawing is very intimate while at the same time creating a distance, and as such it enabled me to deal with this matter without having to feel like a news reporter.

Another example is the film, that will also be on show here. I have made it in collaboration with another French artist, and it is also about medicine, secrets, the body and so on, but it was evident for us that this had be a film, because it is a fiction, and we really wanted to tell a story. Then I do a lot of installations, for instance I often build little houses. In psychiatry addiction is often metaphorically described as house, that you build around yourself. To really describe this, I feel it has to be presented in a physical form that people can interact with.

Thank you.