WILSON, Wyo. — Suzanne Morlock’s newest residency in the Shetland Islands is based off her recent work in Jackson Hole and her concern for environmental issues.
Over the past two years, Morlock has completed projects with Jackson Hole Public Art (JHPA), the Teton County Recycling Center and VISTA 360° to create conversation around environmental concerns. With the support of JHPA, Morlock engaged in 26 unique art happenings at The People’s Market, the Aspen Meadows neighborhood and the Yellow House Collective among other venues.
Inspired by the intact ecology of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Morlock now heads to the Shetland Islands planning to use art as a language to engage community in environmental outreach.
“Living in a place with intact ecology is a rare gift.”
Suzanne Morlock
“Living in a place with intact ecology is a rare gift,” Morlock says of her time in the valley. “It inspires me to continue to point to issues related to environmental concerns and to live consciously.”
For eight weeks, Morlock will be a “creator-in-residence” at The Weaving Shed in Hillswick, Shetland, involving herself with an annual beach cleanup where 25 percent of the population gathers litter from coastlines and participating in tree initiatives on the largely tree-less island.
Morlock has also created a social practice project called Open Studio Weekly, where she will invite local people and visitors into her gallery space to have tea and make art using an alternative photography technique called cyanotype, a camera-less technique laying an object on paper coated with a solution of iron salts before exposing it to UV light and washing with water to create blueish images.
On May 7 at the end of the residency, there will be a pop up exhibition at the Weaving Shed Gallery to highlight the community’s art using found objects.
“Visual art has the ability to pierce written and spoken language, the ability to generate new connections between an individual’s experiences and the images – creating new links, sparking new dialogue and potentially opening new ways of seeing,” Morlock says.
Morlock is also looking into the legacy of knitting tradition in Shetland and incorporating it into her work as she continues to immerse herself in Shetland environmental issues through the language of art.
“Environmental topics recur, in part through my use of recycled materials for many years, along side other narrative properties in my work,” Morlock says. “These issues increase in urgency and warrant ongoing discussion. Site specificity has a strong influence in shaping the forms causing the narrative to hold more direct and local appeal. I’m interested in giving the viewer latitude to draw out of the work what they are interested in and willing to explore.”
This project is a collaboration with Shetland Amenity Trust, The Weaving Shed, Children’s Voices Climate Action of Shetland and the Global Tree Initiative. Morlock’s residency is support by a professional development grant from the Wyoming Arts Council.
