"
I first met Susan McEachern at the Banff Center, over twenty years ago. She
was making big colour prints which have impressed me with their boldness to
this day. Since that time, her investigations into feminism, the family, motherhood
and human nature have provoked my intrigue with each new body of work. Susan's
intellectual approach to such personal issues is based on and strengthened
by her willingness to 'walk the talk': It is evident that although she swims
in and contributes to a rigorous world of ideas, her work results from a direct
experience, a process of personalization which occurs close to home. Imogen
Cunningham once said that "when the light was just right, at dawn and
in late afternoon, I was always too busy, preparing breakfast or supper, to
photograph landscapes, as my peers were doing". So she chose other moments
and persevered in making her work unique, personal and connected to the movements
of her time. Half a century later, with a camera and a computer in hand, Susan
-McEachem continues this journey, asking the questions which might elucidate
relationships between the individual, the family, the local and the global
community. Backyard Community is Susan's latest project. She examines samples
of insect populations which live in her garden. Using 'corporate management!
studies she looks at variables that might affect social structures in terms
of the fulfillment of a set of goals such as productivity, disturbance, satisfaction,
etc... The overlay of insects and human behavioral studies is both humorous
and somewhat chilling. The beauty of the garden is revealed to be a complexity
of ideas and natural phenomena, questioning free will and innate behaviors.
She has done it again: while some may travel the world to look for answers
to basic questions of human existence, others have discovered that the question
is already in 'her own backyard, somewhere in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.. "
