Queen Green by Susie Green

Queen Green was an exhibition of new work by artist Susie Green that was inspired by her residency at Dalby Forest in the North York Moors. The exhibition celebrated erotic encounters with nature, and moments of confidence and fragility, growth and decay, lightness and dark. Works on paper and large cut-out mixed forms mounted onto wooden trellis portray powerful, blossoming, shapeshifting bodies.

Images of unwieldy personalities branch, grow and take up space, yet are also at points, controlled. Queen Green was an extension of the artist’s practice depicting powerful, fluid forms, expanding on her interest in power play, theatricality and moments of flux.

The exhibition explored the concept of the word ‘Viriditas’, used by German Benedictine Abbess, writer, composer and mystic Hildegard von Bingen in the Middle Ages. ‘Viritidal’ means greenness, freshness, vitality, fecundity, fruitfulness, verdure, or growth and was used by Hildegard to describe the divine nature in relation to the human spirit and the natural world.

Imagery in the works was informed by the locations visited by the artist during her residency. Natural leaf, seed, tree and cloud forms contrast with unnatural objects seen around Dalby Forest such as solar panels, wind turbines and the dots of colour on route maps. Colours reflect the changing autumnal scenes unfolding in the forest, contrasting with the bright colours of mountain bikes and cycle clothing.

Queen Green was a project supported by Forestry England, Crescent Arts, Scarborough Museums Trust, and Arts Council England.