Tatjana Pieters kindly invites you to ‘Librarian Left’, the second
solo show
in the gallery of German artist Heide Hinrichs. Having resided in Seattle
for the last four years, this show features Hinrichs’ first series of works
after her return to Europe. Combining objects with textile pieces and a
video work, Hinrichs has created an installation that follows up on her
recent solo exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum.
Hinrichs’ melancholic and restrained vocabulary is instigated by her
carefully chosen use of common materials and objects, whereby the process of
production is happening in direct relation to the body. Papier-maché, clay,
wood, cardboard, textile, balls and inner tubes are formed, stretched, cut
and reassembled as objects that transcend their materiality and correspond
to an internalized research into a larger system of relationships and
perspectives.
Familiar objects and materials take on a new identity, reinvigorating a lost
history into a new narrative. Her precise use of texture, volume and colour
contributes to a construction of tactile topographies that are resistant to
any explanatory description, but instead deal with a mental state of
internal confrontation. Loss and hope, void and plenty, subjective and
collective memory, structure and skin are only a few juxtapositions evoked
within Hinrichs’ unfolding environments.
Drawing an analogy between the linguistic system and her artistic language,
with ‘Librarian left’ Hinrichs has moved from a horizontal structure
between
the objects like words in a sentence to a vertical interdependence within
the objects themselves. ‘Scaffolding #2’ is a hanging construction
that
plays with the forces of gravity. Suspended from the ceiling, wooden beams
that are interconnected with minimal pieces of fabric, can only exist in
balance with each other. A system can suddenly destabilize as is the case
with ‘Shelf #2’: its structure has collapsed, its functionality lost,
however offering space for new meaning. The collapsed structure is
confronted with the observing view depicted in the video ‘The Librarian’s
eye’. An indirect and rhythmic gaze reflects equally to the outside and
the inside, as if it would scan the possibilities for something else to come alive.
Heide Hinrichs has created an abandoned stage where the servant to the
system has left and the skin is taken off, formulating a request for the
relocation of identity and selfreliance.
Heide Hinrichs (1976) studied at the University of Kassel and at the Academy
of Fine Arts Dresden. In 2006 she graduated from the Higher Insitute of Fine
Arts, Antwerp. She had solo exhibitions in Kunstverein Ahlen in 2006 and the
Seattle Art Museum in 2010.
Group shows include: Manifesta 7, Trentino (Italy), Second People, Helm
Gallery, Tacoma (USA), Zwei Erzählungen von Etwas, SAMSA, Berlin (DE)
Sophisticated Boom Boom (in b&w), Domobaal, London (UK) . In December 2010
she will be showcasing work at Netwerk Aalst. Her work is in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum as well as in private collections in
Europe and the USA.