Ensemble

'Ensemble' exemplifies Susan Norrie's transition from pure painting to work that combined painting and display methodologies in the early 1990s. It demonstrates her interest in creating hybrid works, moving beyond the two-dimensional painted plane to incorporate crafted objects and three-dimensional structures.

The work consists of a thickly painted wall construction, acting as a shelving unit for three small canvases that embody the three types of painting Norrie was exploring at this time. The largest canvas presents an abstract painting; the next a more representational white powder puff form, loosely inspired by the depiction of fabric and fripperies in 18th century French painting. The final canvas presents an almost schematic portrait of 'a whistling Joe'. This early 20th century automated doll, which whistles when wound up, acts as a colloquial metaphor for wasting time – a common anxiety about art practice particularly when artists are commercially unsuccessful.

Norrie considers 'Ensemble' to have a memorial or commemorative function, one which has personal references to death and transition; however, it also refers to the much touted 'death of painting' in the 1980s when some theorists thought painting an exhausted and invalid art form. Aligned with Norrie's postmodern approach, the work stems from her critical exploration of the history of painting and art as a consumer product, and highlights her ambivalent relationship to painting.