Human Tick

SUSO33 first became recognised throughout Madrid in the 1980’s and 90’s for his iconographic “blob” pieces, which he painted in place of a traditional tag. SUSO33’s first blobs were exactly that -- unrecognisable images with no intentionally ascribed value. By the 1990’s, however, he began painting them in an increasingly anthropomorphised manner, rendering them with expressions reflecting SUSO33’s mood and mindset at the time of painting. SUSO33 also explores innovative processes such as fumigation -- a process whereby chemicals are used to burn an image into the wall -- reflecting street art’s ephemerality, as well as his rejection of the exclusivity and profit motive common to many museums. SUSO33 has used these methodologies to push beyond the blob, to creating the eerily anthropomorphised Ausencias (absences) and Presencias (presences). The former intentionally fleeting, immaterial figures composed of aerosols, water or light, appearing in alleys and abandoned areas. The latter are more physical, appearing in solid aerosols and gradient shadows in groups on larger public walls. Through his Ausencias and Presencias, SUSO33 explores juxtapositions of solitude and individualism versus community and collectivism, suggesting an underlying message that personal social isolation and marginalisation may be overcome by a broader collective spirit of openness and coming together.