Susan Kleinberg has taken her renowned installation “Fear Not” and turned it into an inspiring and insightful book. Over the span of four years, Kleinberg interviewed people from all over, posing the question “What is courage?” The installation, at the Venice Biennale 2001, featured plasma screens embedded in the walls with still images in sequence of those speaking. Headphones to listen hung from the immensely high ceiling of the Arsenale, hanging on either side of the screens, the entire piece becoming a kaleidoscopic instrument as people listened to the conversations in English and Italian. The piece was focused on the question “What is courage?” rather than trying to capture its elusive definition.
During these days of the pandemic, Kleinberg thought it a good time to release _Perceiving Courage_, a book adaptation of her original installation “Fear Not.” It features high-profile names, Cong. John Lewis, astronaut Sally Ride, Gore Vidal, as well as people from the streets, Albanian immigrants, allowing readers to locate themselves amid these varying thoughts.
Kleinberg’s other work over this past year of quarantine includes the video _Leap!_ and related drawings, shown below. “It began with my happiness at hearing the rumor of the dolphins in Venice, albeit untrue,” Kleinberg says. “As an artist, my goal was to construct a leap in every way. As we go forward, how we go forward, how we must question, and the energy, the joy, the possibility of a leap. Only the footage in the first segment is actual, we particularly enjoyed contributing to Canaletto. Leap! is an offer of a moment of wonder.”
Get _Perceiving Courage_ [here](https://books2read.com/u/47lJpE), and read below as _Flaunt_ chats Kleinberg’s artistry, courage, and more!
_LEAP!_, April 2020 (1 min 30 sec)
“Fish and Fibonacci”, gouache and pastel on watercolor paper, 18” x 24”
**How would you define your artistic style?**
I‘ve been making art across media for quite a number of years, starting out as a sculptor. I was making drawings with the kind of tensions that I was interested in, and I've continued to do that. I continue to make prints as well. The piece that we're talking about, _Perceiving Courage_, was going to be an audio piece. I was taking the photographs entirely for my own records and pleasure.
**What was your inspiration for “Fear Not?”**
Well, I thought that it was a pretty interesting concept. Was it possible to have people talk about this and have a way that viewers could place themselves within all of this information without having to go through some of these horrid experiences and/or extreme circumstances that people find themselves in. Maybe it was possible to communicate some of that value. I wasn't trying to prove anything. I didn't have that kind of axe to grind. I was also interested in the rhythm and the pacing of the voice. I was a student of John Cage’s so that kind of issue of sound has always been important to me, the juxtaposition of voice, I mean with Congressman John Lewis, and then Gore Vidal, and then Sally Ride, and then Albanian refugee children. I was interested in a kind of catapulting of that rhythm.
“Dolphin”, gouache and pastel on watercolor paper, 18” x 24”
**Why did you turn “Fear Not” into _Perceiving Courage_?**
As you see in the piece, these interviews were mostly done before 9/11.
It's a project that I worked on for a very long time, doing other things at the same time. I thought, well, maybe it would be good to do as a popular book. I didn't want to do a coffee table book. That's why I put it together as an eBook first, and will publish in hardcover in the near future. I thought this kind of access as an eBook is so easy and so of our times in that continual sort of transition. I like the personal-ness of it being very direct.
**What’s the most courageous thing you’ve ever done?**
I had been asked to do a piece that floated in the water. It was for the Venice Biennale some years back. I got NASA to make me a flotation collar based on the Apollo capsules’ flotation collar. It was hysterical. How did I think I was going to pull this off? I actually got the sponsorship of Alitalia to fly this enormous thing there… NASA was no longer doing Apollo, so they were into this. They never thought that I could actually make it work. I only cared how it worked and they only cared how it looked, so it was a wonderful upside-down thing. They even stamped on it ‘this side up Susan.’ It was lost flying to Venice. I think the FBI had to go find it. It was said that it had been stuck in some warehouse somewhere. In Venice, It had to be anchored by scuba divers and us…in the Grand Canal. All of a sudden, I had to get insurance and they said, “well, it could sink and people are going to walk on this thing.” But NASA assured me it could support a Cadillac.
“Turquoise”, gouache and pastel on watercolor paper, 18” x 24”
**What would you recommend to artists facing “artist’s block?”**
I think to just keep working. The editorial process of eliminating is of course an important process, but I think just keep working. Put a lot out. Even if it doesn't seem like it works, or it makes any sense, or looks revolting, or sounds bad as an idea. I think we all grew out of this thing of editing it to be good. You know, that's a view that can really hold you down.
**Is there anything else you’d like to say to** [**Flaunt.com**](http://flaunt.com/) **readers?**
Well, I love _Flaunt_ and I’m delighted that they’re putting this out. We did [a piece](https://flaunt.com/content/art/susan-kleinberg) together some years back. I hope people enjoy _Perceiving Courage_ and find some value for themselves. If they’d like to be in touch with me I’d love to hear back. I am going to continue as soon as the pandemic lifts a bit.
“Akrotiri”, gouache and pastel on watercolor paper, 18” x 24”
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All images courtesy of Susan Kleinberg.
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