Susan MacWilliam (Belfast, 1969) makes videos, sculptural works and installations that immerse the viewer in curious tales of vision and perception as they are lead through histories of psychical research and studies of sensory and extrasensory phenomena. Susan uses diverse forms of making, reconstruction, portraiture and storytelling to explore personal and social histories. Her detailed research with historical archives and her friendships and interactions with her subjects allow for idiosyncrasies to come to the fore and for the peripheral and overlooked to be revealed and animated.

In 2009 Susan represented Northern Ireland at the 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009 with her solo show REMOTE VIEWING. Her mid-career survey exhibition MODERN EXPERIMENTS toured four venues across Ireland in 2016/7. In 2017 she was awarded the EIKON Award
(45+) for women photographers and media artists, hosted by EIKON International Magazine for Photography and Media Art, Vienna with accompanying exhibition at Künstlerhaus 1050, Vienna in 2018.

Recent exhibitions include the solo exhibition Table Turning, 2025/6 at Ormston House Limerick, and the group exhibitions, Ghosts: Visualising the Supernatural, Kunstmuseum Basel, 2025/6; The Medium is the Message, The College of Psychic Studies, London, 2025/6, and The Undead Archive: 100 Years of Photographing Ghosts, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 2023.

Susan is a lecturer in Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. She is represented by CONNERSMITH.