Susan Finlay is a British artist and writer based in Germany. Current and forthcoming projects include The Brexit Chronicles, an audio series for Akerman Daly; Our Lady of Everything, a novel with Serpent’s Tail, and Ver Sacrum, an exhibition at Hopscotch Reading Room, Berlin.
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The word ‘salon’ originate from seventeenth century France, and can refer either to a reception, an assembly of guests, a hall displaying art, or an establishment offering a specific service most usually relating to fashion.
The name ‘Isadora’ – short for Isadora Duncan – elicits all of the above, plus dancing. Plus the classical world re-imagined through a then modern, European-American, lens. Plus Aleister Crowley, Sylvia Plath, Ken Russell and what they believe that she, as an idea, symbolizes.
The salon Isadora is an exhibition, or installation, or environment, created by Susan Finlay at MoHA, Austin. It comprises of painting, jewelry, cocktail cigarettes and chiffon scarves arranged as if something else will then occur. Likewise, the accompanying events programme is also intended to function as a commentary on this ‘Classical European’ sensibility regardless of the actual nationalities, or geographical locations of those involved.
The events programme comprising of film, text and audio works, all of which relate, sometimes loosely, to an idea of the European Salon
Week One – Film including work by Bruce Asbestos, Anna Franceschini, Sophie Macpherson, Ursula Mayer, Urara Tsychia and Zoe Williams
Week Two – Text including work by Phoebe Blatton, Aurelia Guo, Sarah Harrison, Amy Key, William Kherbeck, Daisy Lafarge and Samantha Talbot
Week Three – Audio including work by FITH, James Harding, Andreas Korte, Rebecca Lee, Matilda Tjader and Bea Turner
susanfinlay.co.uk | @susanellenfinlay
Selected text from Isadora
Trigger Warning (by William Kherbek) | The Cut (by Aurelia Guo) | 3 poems from MSC (by Samantha Talbot) | origin (by Daisy Lafarge) | I have only seen her in a mirror (by Amy Key) | Children are Monsters (by Sarah Harrison) | Trust (by Phoebe Blatton)