In Dialogue
In Samuelle Green’s previous installations such as The Paper Caves and Polypore, viewers encountered forms that were wildly organic in appearance. They were comprised of somewhat amorphous essentialized forms in nature that exist on the micro and macro levels, executed on an immersive human scale, enabling viewers to make a variety of associations with the natural world — pollen grains, clouds, or coral reefs. The new work, By Day: By Night, 2025, is much more specific in its references and seeks to speak a different visual language almost entirely.
In this installation, Samuelle Green has coopted a distinctly human vocabulary, with steel rods comprising a truncated three-dimensional grid welded at perpendiculars. As night falls, the grid is transcended by recognizable floating chair forms in reflective materials illuminated by viewers themselves. For Green, the seat elements acknowledge those having departed or yet to arrive, and the arrangements serve as an invitation to question conventional settings and established hierarchies. She does not see these latest works as necessarily signaling an end to the previous body of work. All continue to explore repeating forms and seek to engage and immerse viewers with their scale. Green views the reflective works as the beginning of an evolving series.
This work is a big departure from your previous work. How did it evolve?
My work has always been multidisciplinary, and the new work is an extension of my experience working in many different materials. I don’t like feeling constrained by previous aesthetic decisions or choices in materials or approach. Even in the midst of working in one particular way, I am often imagining new projects and developing ideas for future work. I find it helpful to be thinking through/working on multiple projects simultaneously as one pursuit may inform and invigorate another.
It was during the pandemic, that while working on the paper installations, I simultaneously started experimenting with work that required direct viewer participation through the use of their cell phone – as this was how many of our interactions were taking place at the time. These works were a very analog version of digital art. In the Forced Perspective, 2021 series for example pedestals housed sculptures in their dark interior that were illuminated when a photo was taken through a small slot only your smart phone could penetrate. Why not work similarly on a larger scale? By Day: By Night took shape through a series of trials. I tested materials, locations, and means of illumination. I was excited by the prospect of the perception of an installation seen during the daytime shifting form as night fell and then illuminated by a light source provided by the viewer.
It seems that you are interested here in the relationship between grid and levitation. Can you elaborate on that?
The grid formation is evident in the daylight and, although it is still there at night, you primarily see the reflective chair elements. I’m interested in how this perception of the work changes from day to night – transforming the artwork. The 3D grid is a common form functioning here as a structural armature, and I am intrigued that it perceptually appears to fall away as the reflective elements are illuminated and seem to float in mid-air like a mirage or apparition — transcending material restraints.
This work is exhibited outdoors. How did this impact your process and ideas?
When I first created The Paper Caves installation it was in an old storefront along a literal Main Street in a small town in rural Pennsylvania. This location drew an audience that may not typically experience installation art. I enjoyed the interactions with the community and wanted to create an even more public work, engaging an even broader audience. I love the idea of happening upon an unexpected artwork, and I was excited to move outside of the constraints of an enclosed space into a more expansive environment. This allowed me more freedom in terms of determining a flow for viewers through the piece without the confines of existing architecture.
However, there were new sets of parameters to consider when incorporating the reflective light aspects of the work. To facilitate the unexpected “happening upon”, I need locations that enable car headlights to catch the work, and where flashlights and flash photography are allowable. These criteria have thus far been met in some unconventional spaces – along a brook and park area behind the Catskill Art Space, in what was an old apple orchard along the roadside in rural North East, Pennsylvania, and currently adjacent to a parking lot between a liquor store and cornfield along the roadside in Cochecton, NY.
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About the artist: A native of Honesdale, Pennsylvania, Green’s upbringing in a rural town surrounded by nature, artisans, and craftspeople shaped her creative path. Early apprenticeships with local artists fostered her interest in multidisciplinary approaches, which she formalized through studies at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and Parsons School of Design in New York. Green spent nearly two decades in Brooklyn as a freelance artist and fabricator, contributing to diverse projects, including large-scale installations for other artists, museums, set designs, murals, sign painting, and window displays. This period honed her technical expertise and broadened her perspective on collaborative creative processes. Eventually, she relocated her studio to her hometown, where she now focuses exclusively on her personal work while fostering the local arts community through events and workshops at her studio. Her large-scale installations and sculptures have been exhibited nationally and internationally in China, Italy, Estonia, and France. Within the U.S., her work has appeared in museums, galleries, and unconventional public spaces, consistently capturing attention for its immersive quality and transformative engagement with space. @samuellegreen
About the writer: Etty Yaniv is a Brooklyn-based artist, writer, curator, and founder of Art Spiel. She works in installation, painting, and mixed media, and has shown her art in exhibitions across the United States and abroad. Since 2018 she has published interviews and reviews through Art Spiel, often focusing on underrecognized voices and smaller venues. The publication also serves as a platform for writers, supporting new voices in writing about art. Yaniv’s studio practice is central to her work, and she is also active in the ongoing conversation around contemporary art. More about her art can be found at ettyyanivstudio.com and on Instagram @etty.yaniv