Susan Ossman
"Year of the Elephant," 1991, collage on paper.
Collection of the Tangier American Legation Museum.
Gather Wood, Gather Words began when I traveled around Northern Morocco in 1991. Throughout that trip, I was awed by the relentless work of women gathering wood for their cook stoves. As they trekked across the vast green hills, they seemed to paint the landscape with the red and shite stripes of their skirts (mendil). When I returned home to Casablanca, the image of them stitching the land they traversed inspired me to make "Year of the Elephant," a collage/word play on the meaning of "fil" ( string in French/elephant in Arabic); which also marks the year of the prophet Mohammed's birth. Since that time, red threads and gestures of gathering wood have inspired artworks in which I reflect on how all work, with wood or words, goes up in smoke.
In 2022, I launched an international collaborative program on this theme with colleagues at New York University Abu Dhabi. With NYUAD suport I developed new work in Morocco, leading to on a site-specific exhibition, and a performance in collaboration with Ayoub and the Momkin collective from May-December 2024. A film of the opening and performance directed by Mohamed Reda Kouzi captures the artistry and ambiance of that unforgettable event
In 2022, I also began new fieldwork in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia in collaboration with William R. Duell and James D. Faubion. Exploring logging and declining paper mills in isolated communities in the American South led me to explore what were radically new natural and social environments. It led me to paint in tandem with James Faubion's poetry and work as a dramaturge for the play by WR Duell wrote based on our fieldwork. Wordsmyth Theater Company in Houston presented a staged reading in April 2024. A full production is in the works for 2025.
In April 2025, I will also join colleagues Kim Robertson, Ram Natarajan and Andreas Valentin for a group exhibition of "Gather Wood, Gather Words." It will bring together Kim's work on abandoned palm trees in the deserts of the UAE, Ram's embroidered paintings developed through fieldwork among rice farmers in Southern India, and Andreas' painted photographs of the Amazon forest and the UAE's Empty Quarter at the Rizk Art Initiative in Abu Dhabi.
