Suzette Bross

WALKS ALLISON GRANT Deep reflection often occurs at moments that appear outwardly mundane.

The spaces between obligations and scheduled appointments—the commute, the line at a checkout, a walk around the neighborhood, or a midday coffee—serve as intervals when the body is kept busy enough with routine tasks to allow the mind to ruminate on more profound aspects of life. The quotidian nature of routine makes it a grounding force in life: a rhythm that allows the waking mind to move into spontaneous, enigmatic dreaming.

Artist Suzette Bross uses routines from her daily life to create contemplative artworks that elevate the mundane time spent commuting or wandering into moments of essential importance to the human psyche.

Her photographs contain identifiable subject matter; however, the camera is not used in service of faithful documentation, but rather it is used to describe experiences of interiority and to consider how the mind wanders in relation to external visual stimulus. Specifically, Bross works within the patterns and rhythms that occur as she moves from place to place, as is evident in her recent series Walks (2012–2014). In precisely-aligned grids of photographs taken from waist level looking down at the ground, the artist documents walks step-by-step as she traverses pathways, city streets, hallways, and building interiors. The textures of the terrain she crosses never fully conform to the rigid logic of her photographs’ gridded sequencing. Dizzying patterns emerge where the geometry of an environment appears to continually morph beneath her feet, seemingly in sync with her own internal thoughts.