antequem humus: before they become the soil

Susanna Bauer

Leaf Works (2008-ongoing)

The stunning intricacy of Susanna Bauer’s crochet additions to dried leaves turns them from an ordinary, everyday sight into extraordinary artworks. The pair of leaves in Everything That Surrounds Us have been embellished with an ornate lace frame that resembles frames and mounts that adorn precious artefacts and artworks. Perhaps one can imagine Bauer’s embellished leaves placed in an old scrapbook with a collection of sepia-tone family portraits and yellowing hand-written letters. Although the artistry of the detailed lace frame turns the often-overlooked dried leaves into something that asks be admired (or at least paid attention to) the works still retain the simplicity and humility of the leaves themselves. Thinking of Bauer’s Leaf Works in terms of humility, a word that derives from the Latin humus meaning soil or ground, can help us understand what it is about these crocheted leaves that is so charming. 

In contrast with Everything That Surrounds Us, Restoration and Restoration V are anything but elaborate; Bauer’s Restoration works are perhaps the most humble of them all. She has carefully mended holes and tears with beige thread, the stitches barely visible against the similarly-coloured leaves. This leaf-mending practice may seem inconsequential or pointless; we usually only see the value in repairing what we find useful and what we find beautiful. However futile the action may appear, Bauer’s act of mending fragile, dead leaves demonstrates care and tenderness for even the most insignificant parts of nature. 

The distinction between what we find beautiful and what we find useful is akin to the somewhat antiquated categories of craft and fine art. ‘Craft’ is usually defined by an object’s utilitarian purpose (such as pottery, knitting, or quilting) and has often been seen as domestic, decorative, mechanical, minor, and feminine. ‘Fine art’, on the other hand, comprises all of what we would consider to be traditional art practices—painting, drawing, sculpting—which have been celebrated throughout history for their creative, intellectual, aesthetic, and imaginative qualities. Bauer’s Leaf Works inhabit the space between these categories (the boundaries of this space have recently been expanding and/or disintegrating at a rapid rate with an influx of contemporary art that uses the techniques and materials associated with traditional crafting: quilted ‘paintings’, knit sculptures, decorative ceramics, and the like). When considering Bauer’s materials, her works are fundamentally works of ‘craft’ in the sense that she uses crochet and found objects to create decorative (albeit use-less) objects. On the other hand, Bauer’s leaf compositions (those that have multiple, separate elements) such as Each Other and her three-dimensional artworks such as Cube Tree begin to resemble the ‘fine art’ mediums of painting/drawing/collage and sculpture/installation, respectively.

Bauer’s Leaf Works communicate a sense of respect for her material in terms of her process (selecting the leaves and the delicate crochet-work) and in terms of the message communicated to the viewer: even dead leaves deserve to be cared for. Bauer has demonstrated and conveyed a sense of humility in her preservation, restoration, and celebration of individual leaves at their most vulnerable; in the moments antequem humus, before they become the soil. ▪︎

Susanna Bauer is a German artist living and working in England.