MoMA PS1, Liu Susiraja: A style called a dead fish

Upon entering the exhibition hall, I encounter a woman with a broom between her breast, and a loaf of bread on her head, blankly staring at the camera with raw fish between her legs catching my eye. The artist's pictures of her in the apartment filled the exhibition hall. Self-cameras usually allow people to make themselves appear happier and prettier than they are. Photography becomes magic as if the ideal self I aspire to be is the truth. Despite the strong desire to take pictures of oneself as more beautiful than in reality is inherent in taking selfies, the artist does the work of taking photography honestly, no, ridiculously, to the point of being brutal.

She takes pictures of everyday objects in an immensely ordinary house, but her photography are never expected or ubiquitous. “Unabashed, Susiraja’s works test the limits of propriety, indulgence, and “good” behavior.” Her body looks as if it is one of the objects in the picture. Her pale skin, and bumpy and wrinkled body, become an object of observation. And we feel unfamiliarity and awkwardness in her fat body, double chin, and slouching posture as she looks at the camera with blank eyes. Through this, she is deconstructing the cultural view of beauty by constantly showing her socially unwelcome body to people, making it normal and familiar. It deviates from the original beauty that people expect from visual art. Her self-portrait is a free struggle that breaks away from the physical norms based on beauty and seems to break the concept of the normal.

-Hye Jin Kim