About the Exhibition
‘Tender Ruins’ is a new immersive soft-sculpture installation that
explores the tension between trust, care, and the shifting experience of
maternal indispensability. Rooted in fictional storytelling, the work
examines the fragile space of unholding, shaped by emotions that
emerge before rational decision-making.
Drawing on textile processes, reflective writing, and soft sculpture,
Suzanne weaves together often unseen emotional landscapes,
excavating vulnerability, and the fragile process of building trust. The
installation reflects single motherhood when a child becomes an adult,
and parental roles begin to shift.
Developed through documenting personal experiences of navigating a
child’s mental health struggles and addiction, the exhibited works
function as props for an evolving stop-motion animation. Set from a
current perspective, the narrative explores the experience of a mother
navigating in the spaces between the cracks in a society shaped by
housing insecurity, social fragmentation, and diminishing prospects for
the next generation.
About the Artist
Susanne Horsch is a Swiss installation artist whose practice
investigates the relationship between mind and body, drawing on
feminist, queer, and affect theories to explore how emotions, thoughts,
and lived experience shape individual and collective identities. A
graduate of Ulster University Belfast with an MFA in Fine Art, she works
primarily with textiles and soft sculpture as metaphors for weaving
together often invisible elements of human experience. Reflective
writing and textile techniques, including batik, underpin her practice,
excavating hidden emotions, memories, and personal histories while
inviting connection, understanding, and collective healing. Her evolving
three-dimensional works create spaces for shared intimacy.
Photo Credits and Artist Credits
The development for this work has been supported by CCA Derry, the
Arts Council Ireland through the Agility Award and by Kilkenny County
Council through the Arts Act Grant.
Opening Night – Thursday 1 October | 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Friday 2 October | 10:00 am – 5:30 pm
Saturday 3 October | 10:00 am – 5:30 pm
Sunday 4 October | 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
