BEMIDJI — Multimedia artist Susan Hensel has been interested in art since before she can remember.
She has always felt the need to create things. Her mother was creative and went to Toledo Children’s Art School, and her father was an engineer and a musician. Creative pursuits were important in the family.
Hensel’s new exhibit is called “A Neotectonic Future,” featuring around 36 pieces at the Watermark Art Center until July 26. "Neotectonic" is the scientific description of recent tectonic movement or seismic movement. She felt it was a great metaphor for the current era of civilization.
“The era of swift change that we're in, whether it's divisiveness, crazy weather or whatever. It just seemed appropriate,” Hensel told Area Voices on the KAXE Morning Show.
The 36 pieces are made out of fabric and various found media. She describes the fabric as digital embroidery because it was designed on a computer and made by a large machine.
The program was originally designed for making baseball caps and leather jackets. Hensel saw it in action at the Minnesota State Fair about 15 years ago, and it stopped her in her tracks.
“Not by it stitching out without somebody standing over the machine. That's the least of its excitement. I was amazed by the color.”
The machine was stitching out a Donald Duck figure and the blue it created for his shirt was the most amazing blue Hensel had ever seen.
“And at that moment, I knew I was in a heap of trouble, and I was going to have to have one of those machines.”
“A Neotectonic Future” series began in 2019, and Hensel feels she’s close to reaching its end. There are about 60 pieces in the whole series.
“It's also, physically and intellectually, the hardest thing I've ever done. I love the challenge of it. I love learning the new skills, the new bits and pieces of physics and geometry that I need to learn in order to make the stuff do what I could see it do.”
When describing the exhibit on the Watermark Art Center website, Hensel talked about her work having a message without just recreating things specifically. It was a philosophy she came to a while ago. Sometimes an artist creates something and the public may not necessarily “get” it. So, she has a different outcome in mind.
“I don't need to tell the true believers out there ... that there are problems in the world. Whether we agree on the source of the problems or not is immaterial, but we all can agree that there are problems," she said, "and what I would rather do is create a situation where we can dream together about a world that might work better.
"I'm not dreaming about specifics. It's more about attitude. I think that the most important part is to slow down and take a breath.”
Hensel is hoping to provide a visceral experience with her work. This type of work can be both confusing and beautiful, because the color doesn’t behave the way people expect it to like in a painting.
She’s hoping people have a chance to meditate with the work, and hopes people aren’t intimidated when they may not understand something.
“But give yourself the chance, because nobody's going to look at you and go, ‘Whoa. You don't understand it?’ I don't either. ... It's just stuff in the end.”
People can find more of Hensel’s work on her website and Instagram.
Tell us about upcoming arts events where you live in Northern Minnesota by emailing psa@kaxe.org.
Area Voices is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
