Adrienne Heinrich

Artist's Statement

How I see this work:

My sculpture, paintings and installations spring from my experience as a woman and mother. Usually the pieces, which I create, are in the media of translucent fabric or cast silicone. I gravitate towards those materials which imply a certain vulnerability and which are difficult to control. The work springs from the subconscious, revealing itself to me slowly. Part of the excitement of making art is the "not knowing", the feeling of being open to new encounters. The media follows the intuitive message.

More specifically, my current work in cast silicone begins as I carve wood sculpture, from which I make a mold. The final silicone castings contain small objects from our everyday life, which float about in the interior. On the exterior of the solid casting, I paint or draw ancient symbols, linking the commonalities between peoples of all time.

In the same media, but in a slightly different direction, I compose visual histories using artifacts, which carry their own mysterious stories and written documents separately obtained but related in some way. All are open to interpretation, but imply universal archives. These pieces can also be specifically archival, being commissioned by individuals or by groups or corporations.

I also make organically shaped sculptures from reed and paper or from reed and fabric. Light is an important aspect in these pieces, which can take the shape of vessels or ships or unknown objects. These are often combined with whispered sounds.

Periodically, I enjoy going back to making colorful abstract acrylic paintings on unstretched canvas. They are more playful in nature, but I think that the painting feeds the other media in a sort of rhythm. The paintings have many layers of texture and of paint, which emerge and recede. They reveal a history of their own, referring to a universal symbolic language.

In celebrating the identity of individuals, I have been etching mirrors with words. The person who has commissioned the work provides the words. The mirror reflects the face of the individual as a visual and as a superimposed written image. As other people gaze into the mirror, they question their own identity by comparison.

To sum up the direction of my work: I want to create work, which is intensely personal, in the hope of coming close to the truth in myself and in others. It is the work of a dreamer, but one of a dreamer rooted in the world.

Adrienne Heinrich

For more about Adrienne Heinrich, visit her website here.