Susie Green, Abbey Fellow 2026
Edges of Excess: Visceral Overflow and Fluid Boundaries in Baroque Frescos‍ ‍

During my 3 month Abbey fellowship in Rome, I sought out sites of total architectural decoration and depictions of maximal, erotic figurative forms. I wanted to use the fellowship period to reflect on how I approached my own paintings, and consider new possibilities for arrangement, colour, and visual motifs.
I began my research with a visit to the Chiesa del Santissimo Nome di Gesù to view the illusionistic ceiling paintings and reliefs of Giovan Battista Gaulli and painted imagery of partially clothed, shapeshifting figures merging with sublime forms of clouds and sky.
On this same visit I was inspired by the words on a sign inside describing the "Macchina Barocca" (Baroque machine), a gesamtkunstwerk-style display that occurred weekly: sound, light, rolled painting, and glitzy sculpture revealed. I loved how Camp it was, and I began drawing, painting, and imagining what a decorated Baroque machine that holds the body in a state of pleasure and rest might look like.
Throughout my fellowship I questioned how the historic religious imagery and objects I saw in Rome might be made personal, existing both in parallel and opposition to currently lived experiences of austerity, exhaustion, and anxiety. A visit to view Bernini's sculptural depiction of St. Theresa, with a brilliant architectural fellow (who took me on my own private Baroque Rome tour!), led me to an oral fixation: mouths, openings, and thresholds in Rome. Throughout my fellowship, conversations with other residents and staff at the BSR across disciplines were fantastic sources of information and inspiration.
I trusted my instincts, noted recommendations that created a “spark” in me, and also challenged myself to visit places I wasn’t initially sure about, keeping an open mind and allowing for unknown influences to permeate. It was worth it. I listened hard, made lists, gathered energy, and did a lot.