Knowing the Ropes: the transcendental realism of Susan Madsen

To experience Susan Madsen's latest series of large contemporary figurative paintings, Ropes 1, 2, 3 and 4 is to be placed in a state of philosophical vertigo. Her work occupies the territory between seeing and believing, a transcendental space where the rational organizes the visual in search of meaning. By using the way we logically reconcile our senses, Madsen forces a perpetual sensory flux. We are intentionally suspended above the other rope climbers begging impossible answers in an unanchored world. Inside her compelling vastness are constellations that confound the laws of astrophysics. The night sky is subliminally transposed into smooth rocks on a creek bed, planted as a bed of flowers, baked into a desert landscape. We oscillate with intuitive tension. Is that the big dipper, Orion's belt? Is that water or air? Are we ascending or descending? Falling or escaping? Together or alone? We call upon Newton, Descarte, Kant, Sartre, Hawkings, to form a swing arc of possible explanations to cross these images. The effect is unnerving and visceral. Bring a chair.

Femke van Delft