Susiraja – A style called a dead fish ; expo MoMA PS1 2023

For the last 15 years, Iiu Susiraja (b. 1975, Turku, Finland) has taken photographs of herself in domestic settings, most often in her home in Turku, Finland. MoMA PS1 presents the first solo museum exhibition of Susiraja’s work in the US, bringing together a focused selection of photographs and videos that highlight the trajectory of her practice since 2007.

Simultaneously seductive, abject, stylized, and vulnerable, Susiraja’s works are grounded in unabashed, yet private, performances for the camera. In these stagings, household objects—tablecloths, umbrellas, hotdogs, bananas, treadmills, rubber duckies, and dead fish, to name a few such items—become co-conspirators in her confrontations with the lens. Susiraja’s bodily manipulations torque the symbolisms of these objects, crafting incongruous and bold-faced tableaux. Situated between the slapstick and the deadpan, Susiraja’s works locate uneasiness in the comfortable, and vice versa.

Iiu Susiraja lives and works in Turku, Finland. She earned an MFA from the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts in 2018 and has held solo exhibitions at venues including: Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma/Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland; SKMU Sørlandets Kunstmuseum, Kristiansand, Norway; Makasiini Contemporary, Turku, Finland; Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles; Ramiken, New York; and Francois Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles.