Susan Joy Connolly

b. 1976, Ireland

My work concentrates largely on the movement of paint within and off the canvas frame. The two pieces I have included are from a series of canvases made in 2002. This body of work explores the notion of actually taking the paint off the canvas surfaces, and how, by using only two mediums, paint and canvas, I can create sheet-like surfaces which either fall off the surface or reveal the canvas ground underneath.

Bristol Green was the first in the series. It is painted using household paint and medium gel. When the surface has been layered with up to five coats of paint and is fully dry, I cut one-inch vertical lines to enable me to lift the paint, to reveal the raw canvas underneath, creating a gill (breathing) type effect.

Undersea Blue was the fourth in the series of six. This canvas was achieved by carefully and delicately lifting the paint from corner to corner. When the paint had been removed as far as the centre, I stopped, to allow the paint to hang from the canvas ground.

My work invites people to question and consider painting as a 3D form.

(Text: on the border of each other catalogue, 2003)