Unless noted, all images
©Jill Sutherland
Eleven
This is Dek Unu Magazine. In Esperanto, dek unu means "eleven." Eleven images from a single artist. Eleven artists in eleven solo issues in each publication year. Dek Unu publishes the work of a new artist-photographer in each issue. The artist's work and words are featured in individual focus as the sole purpose for each issue of the magazine. Unlike other arts and letters magazines which might look for work from a variety of artists to support an editorial staff's theme, at Dek Unu, theme and imagery are always each artist's own.
Artist-photographer Jill Sutherland’s subject is liminality: uncertainty, quandary, apprehension, qualm, the dilemma of the path from past to future, then to now. Surrounded by a fractured world, divided by doubts, isolation, competition, and judgment, hers is a search for connections. Postcards exchanged between lovers, a pair of exposures dancing in a single image, a lace curtain that invites rather than hides — all are among the metaphors the artist uses to illustrate that, even on the precipice of darkness, there is always the possibility of transformation, love, and joy.
The artworks Sutherland sends for this month’s Dek Unu are a sampler of styles and techniques, drawn from a large number of projects, ranging from empathetic and relatively straight portraiture to extraordinarily complex intimate abstractions combining photography, printmaking, found objects, and collage. They document a voyage through the landscape of fear, pain, addiction, and grief to celebrate the healing role of art. Though it is highly personal, this work is emotional without sentimentality, sensual without self-consciousness, and conceptual without being didactic or opaque. Her art is not just a profession, but a lifeline, a means of expression that brings vitality and purpose to the artist’s existence.