www.gailheidel.com

 

 

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artist
statement

 

  

 

 

 
 

The built environment and urban planning strategies designed to navigate this type of space influence my art practice. The conceptual foundation for my work focuses on how the contemporary condition of interconnectivity found in labor and commerce as well as an individual’s agency affects this environment. To address this concept, I create research based site-specific installations. These installations are comprised of an architectural vocabulary fabricated from common building materials such as ceramic and wood. My construction process is labor intensive and repetitive echoing the mass production of buildings and consumer products. I investigate issues that arise in cities such as urban development projects, eminent domain, red lining, sprawl, and subdivision of land. I also address suggested solutions such as master plans and pattern languages. My work is a metaphor for a city in flux that can be interconnected, but can also be moved, stacked, and piled rather than mortared together. I loosely define my intentions for the outcome of an installation and then allow an emergent aspect to develop. I allow for the viewer to feel a sense of agency that is sometimes missing in the built environment by inviting them to help install on site or enter into a construction site.