Susan Jacobs

We are delighted to be hosting Susan Jacobs - 'Threw a glass tomato' presented by The Renshaws, Brisbane until 16 December 2023.

Threw a glass tomato draws figures of speech into sculptural form, teasing out the roots of idiomatic language in relation to social and material classifications. A family of works is grown through concentration on a single fruit. The expression through a glass onion likens the vegetable to a monocle to signify looking with scrutiny, and through a glass darkly holds the idea of an imperfect vision of reality. The tomato carries symbolic emotional and physical associations; from the ancient Doctrine of Signatures in which plants were used to divine medicinal properties to treat body parts they resembled (the tomato signifying the human heart), to the slapstick trope of pelting rotting produce at a flailing performer.

 In metaphor, meaning is literally carried over through analogy, which acts as a cue for the use of materials whose characters are inherently reactive and corrosive. Threw a glass tomato delves between internal realms and their public expression, embracing ambiguity and intuition in resistance to authoritative systems of knowledge. It revels in the fluidity of associative connections that preclude the fixity of language, but which also use it to elucidate clarity from within the muck of the process of making.

Susan Jacobs, November 2023

Susan Jacobs is represented by The Renshaws, Brisbane.