Susan Jacobs – The ants are in the idiom

The ants are in the idiom is a presentation of newly commissioned work by Australian-born, London-based artist Susan Jacobs. A meditation on the relationship between language and matter, the exhibition (documented in this publication) is an expansive sculptural environment that draws the viewer into a web of visual riddles.

Jacobs’ poetic approach to materials is underpinned by research into systems of thought that have shaped – and mis-shaped – human knowledge. Playful allusions to science, psychology and mythology jostle with visual puns and word games. Enlivened by the imaginative potential of misinterpretation, the exhibition is a rhizomatic sculptural network that stimulates a process of associative looking in the viewer.

The artist has developed this work over several years, experimenting with materials in her studio to articulate a sculptural language informed by cumulative layers of environmental observation and historical research. The ants are in the idiom could be read as an allegory for a way of working as an artist or, on a more universal level, for the human drive to make meaning of our surroundings.

118 pages, 17.5 x 11.2cm, softcover, Buxton Contemporary / University of Melbourne (Melbourne).