Susan Reddrop

Benevolence 2024

Illawarra flame tree pods, glass, and silicone
Variable dimensions

About the Work

Susan Reddrop’s work Benevolence playfully invites viewers to become aware of looking at the work, and the work looking back at them, causing them to be uncertain about what that might mean.

Viewers are faced with the following questions: Are you safe? Is the work benevolent? Can you engage with it? Should you slow down your movements or hasten your step? Can you match its energy or should you challenge it? Is it regarding you pleasingly or are you regarding it with scorn? Is it cute, confusing, friend or foe? Does it belong there? Do you belong there? Is it OK to maintain eye contact or should you look away? Can you understand it and might it understand you? What’s next? How many of them are there?

Made of Illawarra flame tree pods and glass, this work evokes the feeling of being among a colony of bats with all eyes upon you. At night, they glow and by day they are just silently watching.

About the Artist

Susan Reddrop is a glass artist and sculptor who works across a wide range of materials and contexts. She has exhibited in both solo and group shows and also enjoys large-scale public art projects and collaborating with people from all walks of life. She was a winner of the Shopfront Award in the Lorne Sculpture Biennale, and been a finalist in the Wollongong Art in the Garden Prize, Hidden Rookwood Sculpture Prize, Haven Public Art Prize, Deakin Contemporary Small Sculpture Prize, Bluethumb Sculpture Prize, Nillumbik Prize, Mandorla Art Award, Human Rights Award, and Cancer Council Award, to name but a few. In 2022, Susan attended Pilchuck International Glass School on Scholarship and was part of an Artscape documentary series entitled Hannah Gadsby Goes Domestic.