Published by MW Editions, this new photobook by the lens-based artist Susan kae Grant is a haunting collection of whimsical dreamscapes—(re)constructed from her childhood memories and dream explorations, carried out at home and in a lab.
Divided into seven chapters, Night Journey comprises some 90 black-and-white photographs taken—or, the way Grant puts it, made—over the past two and a half decades, starting in 2000.
Except for just a handful of triptychs, with side panels shot on location in Europe, all images in Night Journey were meticulously staged by Grant in her studio. Here, she acts as a shadow theater director orchestrating scenes that are devoid of color and evocative of fairy tales, nightmares, and—probably—Plato’s allegory of the cave.
In some cases, it takes Grant months to create her tableaux as she builds intricate sets, adding and removing layers of props, instructs models, and repositions lighting. The result of all this artistic effort is dreamlike shadow narratives that exist only in imagination, within the photograph.
Within the book, photographs interplay in more ways than just being paired across spreads; some form intriguing longer storylines—triptychs hidden inside foldouts or overlapping images printed on translucent paper.
“In the lush blacks and milky grays that saturate these pages, Grant materializes ghostly figures, animals, objects, and sometimes woods to get lost in. She invites us into a cumulative, immersive parallel existence of forms both absent and present.”
—Trudy Wilner Stack, writer and independent curator
Night Journey sprouted from Grant’s fascination with dreams and the unconscious. First, she wrote down, sketched or committed to tape her dreams—right after waking up in her bed. Next, she enlisted a sleep researcher, Dr. John Herman at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. In his lab, Grant was awakened from REM sleep to record her descriptions of the dream space.
These explorations led to a decades-long artistic endeavor that—using shadow as a metaphor—provides a pictorial access to the unconscious. The project has been displayed through the years at a series of solo exhibitions and will culminate in a retrospective show and this book.
“My interest in the shadow lies in the notion that nothing is certain except the opportunity to imagine and create conjecture. Today, as an artist, my quest is to channel enigmatic aspects of life.” —Susan kae Grant
Susan kae Grant is a lens-based artist, educator, and early creator and curator of photographic book arts. Her studio practice and distinct personal vision are recognized as significant contributions to the history of fabricated photography. Her work is held in major museums and private collections, including the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. Professor of Art Emerita at Texas Woman’s University, she is represented by Conduit Gallery.
Susan kae Grant : Night Journey
MW Editions
Photographs and Artist Statement by Susan kae Grant
Texts by Deborah Willis with Mecca Brooks, and Trudy Wilner Stack
Design by Takaaki Matsumoto
Clothbound with jacket
6 gatefolds, one section printed on translucent paper
164 pages, 89 photographs, 9.25 × 12″
ISBN 978-1-969303-05-0
$70.00
