“I was born to a long line of makers, movers, queers and freaks who were somehow skilled, brave-hearted, and safe enough to pass their magic on to me,” begins Susannah. Born of an artist father and mother mastermind of home and cultivated environments of transcendence, Susannah recalls telling her father around age five she wanted to be an artist, an actress, and a writer. Making came super naturally to Susannah, and despite some family tumult, her parents were generally supportive of her creative efforts. Art “was always where I found the most excitement and peace. Art was both my mooring, and my rudder, the place where I realized that I could transform and improve certain parts of my course, even if the currents were beyond my control. I could make things I wanted to see come into being, and that felt pretty radical.” Although many know her as a performance artist, her practice is multi-disciplinary by nature. Currently, Susannah is evolving some of her performance pieces into film. “My desire is to free people, in a way that is both ideological and sensual, to say ‘Who you are is ok,’” says Simpson, whose art practice encourages and supports this unfolding, granting permission and exploring its physiological response. “The seed that most deeply feeds me is remembering that as humxn beings we are literally phenomena of Nature,” explains Susannah. “It is our right and responsibility to learn, honor, and enjoy the vessels we were given to live in.” When the artist fell asleep the night of Trump’s inauguration while reading Audre Lorde poems, she woke up with a scroll running through her head that said, “SELF-PLEASURE IS AN ACT OF REVOLUTION.” Susannah urges people to know and celebrate the fullness of their being-hood. “As a queer and non-binary womxn, accepting and listening to the magic and intelligence of my body has been integral to my healing, un/re-learning and empowerment.” While Simpson rehearses her dance and performance art pieces at Otion Front Studio in Bushwick, she does the majority of her writing in bed. She also tends to “make, record, move, and experiment” a lot in her bedroom. Home space has always been very important to her process of creation. In her practice, Simpson works hard to “establish living zones that also serve as breeding grounds for other sorts of creativity and magic.” In the age of extreme social media phenomenology, the culture of “compare and despair” is something the artist constantly checks her conditioning around. Psychic stress, fear of failure and the notoriously underpaid field of performance art and dance pose real challenges as well. “I believe that capitalism is fundamentally anti-body (i.e., Earth), so it feels very fitting that this is the way the economy around embodied artwork pans out. Because of our conditioning, and the intense imposition and romanticization of the ‘starving artist’ archetype, it is inherently uncomfortable to talk about money, and especially to demand for more. And yet, part of the revolution I am working on using my privilege to embody is demanding that we are paid our worth.” Currently, Susannah is reworking her piece “THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION HURT,” for a performance at the Judson Memorial Church on March 11th. She also continuously works on her reoccurring eco-pornography video series examining erotic connection through an eco-feminist lens. “I feel the field of erotica is in dire need of forms and perspectives that are more inclusive, connective and supportive of all that sex and sexuality can be,” says Susannah. Meanwhile, she’s working on a collection of essays and looking forward, she’s looking to realize a performance piece that has been sitting in her heart called “MOTHER MEN,” about the “male” relationship to pregnancy and fertility. Another project, a short film called “Mary,” characterizes the Virgin Mary experiencing herself, her body and earthly pleasure/divinity on her own terms – a continuation of the “THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION HURT” piece themes.
Follow Susannah on instagram @queenhannasus