Jacqueline Surdell, Dejma at night; contemporary perspective (after Kawahara Keiga), 2024

On large-scale looms, Jacqueline Surdell employs the full force of her body, weaving sculptural topographies that physically and metaphorically investigate material, space, and time. Her woven reliefs—composed of twisted, bound, and tightly or loosely wefted ropes—pay homage to painterly traditions of depth and perspective while simultaneously exposing the illusionistic nature of the picture plane. Moving fluidly between these disciplines, she establishes her practice as one of transformation. Her exploration of landscape—particularly the interaction between the built and natural worlds—draws on familial Dutch and Midwestern narratives as it does Catholic creations of space, both physical, spiritual, and through painting. Through this lens, she considers the ontological nature of ritual, myth, the sacred, the monumental, and the sublime, questioning where she, and by extension, the body, are situated within these structures.