CRITICAL APPRAISAL: Susan Hiller

Susan Hiller, Homage to Joseph Beuys: Sa Testa (1969-2016)

Edwardian mahogany cabinet with lock and key, glass-fronted, containing 30 bottles of water collected from sacred springs, holy well, etc, 16 x 22.9 x 27.9 cm

Susan Hiller used her expertise in anthropology, archeology and psychology to investigate unconscious aspects of culture. The word homage means to respect, to revere and to acknowledge. It appears to me that ’Homage to Joseph Bueys, Sa Testa’ represents Hiller’s respect for Beuys. The work consists of an Edwardian mahogany cabinet with lock and key. It is glass fronted, and contains 30 bottles of water collected from sacred springs and holy wells between 1969 to 2016.

Beuys often used material and processes that related to concepts of healing and mystical beliefs. It is possible that Hiller used the act of pilgrimage and a spiritual phenomenon in this work to draw our attention to this observation. The cabinet and the bottles appear from another time which makes me think that Hiller wanted us to associate this work with past forms of medicine and healing. This would tie in with Beuys experience of being shot down over the Crimea in WWII. He claimed he was saved by the Tartar tribesmen, who wrapped him up in layers of felt and fat to keep him from freezing. Hiller reflects this in ‘Homage to Joseph Beuys, Sa Testa’ by creating associations with methods of healing that require faith and belief beyond conscious understanding.

Encasing, protecting and storing the sacred water, firstly in the bottles and then in the locked cabinet, Hiller renders the riches collected unattainable. This creates an illusion of something precious, on the one hand, and dangerous on the other. Playing with concepts of life and death raises the question of what we don’t know rather than what we do know. Perhaps this leads us to respect aspects of faith where knowledge is absent.