Susie Dureau’s Biology of Memory, from the series Fathoms, speaks to the idea that memory resides in the cells of our bodies and the landscapes we inhabit. As an artist, Susie is making an ongoing inquiry into the idea of ancestral memory. Current scientific research suggests that our ancestors’ experiences are mapped out in our DNA, informing our instincts and emotions. We are products of centuries of lifetimes, many of which, Susie feels sure, occurred in or by the ocean.

Susie says of this work: “The coastal landscape (the environment my body is intricately connected to) offers a compelling sensory field for me to explore my being – this is why I am drawn to it. My painting practice engages a method of cultivated curiosity: slowing down and attuning my senses to the landscape, thereby accessing embodied knowledge that arises from thinking and feeling in unison. 

“Nature speaks to me in nonverbal languages of light, colour, texture, temperature and tone; these are also the languages of painting. Painting is a collaboration between the sensory body, the mind and emotion, the material pigments and ground. Through the artworks in this exhibition, I borrow these languages to fathom a bond between myself and the landscape: a bond that is both commonplace and mystifying.”

Signed on the back.