Zsuzsanna Szegedi

Zsuzsanna Szegedi is the artist-in-residence at Fruitlands for 2009. Integral to the program is for the artist's work to respond to our site and collections over the course of the season.

Initially, Szegedi's attention was drawn to the raw visual aspects of the weather broken branches, the remains of last year’s ice storm. The fresh wounds on these beautiful giants and piles of broken limbs were strangely inspirational.

Later, as she got more familiar with the historic aspect of the site, her on-site work was inspired by the supposed conversations between members of the transcendentalist Fruitlands Experiment of 1843, as they debated the perfect society. The contradictions between man and the search for that “perfect life” play well with the concept for The Lure of Trees exhibit. According to Szegedi, "through these questions a picture begins to emerge in sharp, clear focus: It is not what we see that matters, but how we see."

Exhibit Catalog