The Container

A place between is spatial, it is a mapping of the topographies between here, there and elsewhere. A place between is temporal, it pays attention to time, to the ways in which we locate the then from the now, the now from the yet-to-come, for in our writings of history, our placing of the past in the present, we are already positioning possibilities for the future. A place between is social, it is an articulation of the place of dialogue, ongoing discussion, between one and another.

Jane Rendell, A Place Between, p.221

AAASince 2004, Suzanne Mooney has been on a journey, physically and metaphorically, traveling the world and exploring her own “between places”. Inspired by the Romantics—their preoccupation with landscapes and their relationship to nature—Mooney has embarked on a personal and artistic peregrination, examining her personal interrelation with vast landscapes, devoid of time and place. These interactions of Mooney’s with landscapes over the last 15 years, usually documented in photography and video, have accumulated into a narrative—timeless and set in an unidentifiable location—that encourages contemplation and reflection about our relationship to spaces; how do we communicate with a place?

AAAThe exhibition at The Container, Out of Time and Place, showcases a selection of videos, some taken over a decade ago and some recently, all displaying Mooney’s silhouette as part of landscape, through delicate and subtle interventions in a variety of locations around the globe. Mostly, the landscapes are not recognizable as specific locations, but sometimes there are a few little hints that the camera picks up; regardless, the focus is always on the landscape itself as a space, with philosophical, personal, and and social implications.

AAAIn a similar fashion to Romanticism, perhaps in an ode to the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Mist (1818), often the camera is positioned to examine the landscape from a perspective that exerts the vastness of the locations, where the “land is transformed into landscape”, Mooney asserts, and defined by “the limitations of the viewpoint of that viewer, the borders of the view.” Mooney’s pensiveness in Romantic ideas such as the sublime—exploring or “getting lost” in spaces as a means to escape everyday life—are strongly evident in the works, such as her intuitive approach. Her silhouette, which echoes the common Romantic silhouettes of men from paintings from that era, enables Mooney also to communicate ideas about gender, exploring new territories and politics.

AAAIt is important to say, that the works are all “very quiet”, visually and conceptually, and even ideas such as gender politics, globalization or social awareness are implied in the most delicate fashion, merely a subtle suggestion. This is the real strength of these works, which present highly personal moments of reflection Mooney selected to share with us. They are pieces that allow glimpses into the artist’s own identity and her own connection to the landscapes she explores. They are tame and poetic, but somehow also able to suggest apocalyptic consequences or foretell of looming extreme natural events. Like many Romantic works, they are moody and high in emotion and impact, but also sublime.

AAAIt is easy to find in this body of works answers for many of Mooney’s other works, from her “Walking in the City” series of photographs where she explores urban landscapes, to her birds-eye view images of Tokyo, taken from Sunshine City in Ikebukuro, or even her older photographs exploring the female body. It is almost as though Mooney is authorizing the viewers to gain insight into the catalyst that informs her entire practice over the last 15 years—slowly and quietly brewing in the background, but in fact, represents Mooney’s core understanding of art and self.

AAAThis series captures storytelling at its best, slowly inviting the viewers to position themselves as the silhouette, like an avatar, to serenely inspect the space from that specific viewpoint. As in many of Mooney’s works, there is a deep interest in technology and the suspense she builds with the use of authentic footage and manipulated footage, makes the viewers apprehensive; there is no clear distinction between the real and the virtual. “In my works,” she says, “the rhythm and cyclical patterns of nature are juxtaposed against the qualities of new technologies, including morphing techniques, layering of video and seamless loops.”

AAAOut of Time and Place, includes four historical video works of Mooney (the earliest from 2004) and a new video that was created for this exhibition (2020), to narrate the evolution of Mooney as an artist and as an individual over the last 16 years. Most of the videos, even the early ones, have never been exhibited in Japan, and the installation at The Container brings an engaging opportunity to view these works side-by-side for the very first time.