Seeps of Winter Could Make You Sick

Just be careful.

Covered in gray paper pulp and dotted with sunken holes, John Grade’s installation is experienced from below. Possessing a rough-surfaced, pockmarked, papier-mâché texture, this rounded form spans the room from end to end. Inspired by Grade’s 2005 residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland, Seeps of Winter is the first work shown in Suyama Space’s 11-year history to be suspended from the ceiling. The artist created this piece to replicate what it might look (and feel) like to be underneath a bog. All but the shortest visitors will have to duck to get all the way under this mammoth, rounded work, which swells like a belly at its fattest, central point, hanging low in the center of the room. And if someone happens to bump the structure, you’ll feel a bit queasy, as the artificial ceiling begins to swing. It is oppressive, this structure, which locates you under a falsely shortened ceiling. Only the smallest amount of light seeps through the piece from the skylights, which reinforces the feeling of being caught. I can’t help but think of those perfectly preserved corpses found in bogs, the (ancient) young women preserved in peat, their still-intact skin stained tea color. Composed of cast paper pulp, cellulose, and glassine, this false bog has one looking up, like I imagine those thousand-year-old women might have been, caught underneath it.