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Suzanne McClelland’s Mute disassembles elemental components of language, effectively dissolving them into the unutterable. Twenty-six paintings—conceived to represent letters of the Latin alphabet—liberate language from its existential bind. Severing symbols from their function, Mute replaces the auditory with the visual, preventing vocalization and articulation, manifesting as an alternate alphabet, and demanding new context to acquire legibility. The characters are replaceable but rely on one another to establish meaning.
Engaging with notions of control and chance, the line-up of portrait oriented works, formed by gravity, viscous pours, spills, and stains, references the process of comparison, recognition, and memory.
Mute is a language that cannot be spoken or read, yet demands to be seen, felt, and understood as present.
