“I’m obsessed with the passing of time and the way light changes. When I’ve done what I set out to accomplish in a photograph, I have preserved the skipping and floating and grinding of time.”

–Susan Mikula

CHC Gallery is pleased to announce sic transit, an exhibition of new photographs by Susan Mikula. This is the artist’s first show with the gallery.

In her latest body of work Mikula continues to exploit the idiosyncrasies of a Polaroid camera. By handicapping the governor, she allows for time and space to dictate how the photograph develops. In the sic transit series, Mikula places emphasis on atmosphere, setting, and the exacting orchestration of light. Moving away from recognizable subject matters and familiar objects from much of her previous work, she draws the viewer into strangely enigmatic and nostalgic scenes. In the storyboard of scenes, she frames different rooms and corridors of what could be glimpses into a lucid dream. The haunting imagery is meant to elicit flashbacks into our own memories, dreams, or nightmares.

“Susan’s abstract visions are familiar enough to make you worry she might have gotten into your head and stolen your memories — she can make you feel reminded of things you’ve never done.”

–Rachel Maddow, host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show

The show consists of large-scale digital Duraflex prints, which originate from vintage Polaroid photographs. The main gallery space is hung sequentially (clockwise) from entrance to exit, as the beginning of a foggy memory to the end. The sic transit series consists of seven separate images each in an edition of eight.

Susan Mikula is a self-taught artist from Western Massachusetts. She has been taking photographs for the past decade. In 2006 the artist created a major photography installation featuring nine color portraits printed on nine-foot swathes of industrial mesh. Her work has been exhibited extensively in galleries throughout Massachusetts since 1998. Mikula currently commutes between her two residences in Massachusetts and New York City.