Suzie Silver

Based in Phoenix and Pittsburgh, Suzie Silver is an artist who works primarily in video, sound and performance. Developed from multifarious but related interests, her work has explored gender play, sexuality, visual pleasure, notions of the paradisiacal, and the allure of imaginary landscapes. Silver’s work has exhibited and screened widely nationally and internationally at such venues as The Whitney Museum of Art, The New Museum, Documenta, ICA Boston, ICA London, Pacific Film Archives, Anthology Film Archives, London Film Festival, Seoul Film Festival, and Gay and Lesbian Film/Video Festivals all over the world including Melbourne, London, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, Chicago, NYC, Sao Paulo, Auckland and many more. She has performed nationally at venues including Chicago Filmmakers and Club Lower Links, Chicago, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, NYSCC at Alfred University, and Transformer Gallery in Washington, DC. She received a B.A. in Visual Art from the University of California, San Diego and a M.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Currently, Silver is Associate Professor in Electronic and Time Based Art in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.

Collaborating since 2003, Hilary Harp and Suzie Silver have created a range of projects including objects, installations, videos and performances. Drawn to exotica, science fiction and pre-digital special effects, they create d.i.y. spectacles by combining technical sophistication with humble materials. They have exhibited their objects and installations throughout the U.S. including the Munson Proctor Williams Art Institute, Penn State University, and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, the Arizona State University Museum, Bucheon Gallery, San Francisco; and the Pittsburgh Glass Center. Their videos, have screened all over the world, including the 2004 Stuttgarter Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany; ENTERmultimediale 2, Prague, Czech Republic; Biennale Internazionale di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy; Angle: The First International Short Film and Video Festival, Xiamen, China; and Arcipelago, 13th International Festival of Short Films and New Images, Rome, Italy. They have performed their live media variety show Fruit Machine in a number of venues nationally including Transformer Gallery, Washington DC; Around the Coyote Festival, Chicago, IL; and the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Also available from VDB is Strange Attractors: Investigations in Non-Humanoid Extraterrestrial Sexualities, an extraordinary 288 page, full color, book and 120 minute DVD encompassing art, writing and film that was curated by Suzie Silver with Christopher Kardambikis and Jasdeep Khaira.  It is available for purchase on our Merchandise Page.