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Indepth Arts News:
"Catherine Heard: Effigies"
2003-03-29 until 2003-05-11
Cambridge Galleries
Cambridge, ON,
CA Canada
Catherine Heard's figurative art finds its foremost expression in the doll -- baby effigies variously crafted from found materials, silk, printed cotton and human hair, that become metaphors of arrested growth, and expressive of deep anxieties centred in the body. This exhibition is a survey of ten years of the artist's work.
Heard's figurative sculptures have been described as "among the most memorable sculpture to be seen . . . capable of invoking complex layers of emotion, simultaneous mixes of brutality and sentimentality, self-doubt and self-confidence . . ."
Carefully sewn together and with great attention to detail, these figures recall to us the craft tradition of handmade rag dolls. And yet, to call these objects dolls seems very inappropriate. These figures contradict everything we know or associate with the doll - beauty and health, play and the optimism of childhood. Heard's figures by contrast may appear diseased and mutant. These figures actively resist play.
Catherine Heard was born in Kitchener, Ontario in 1966. A graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, she was a member of the influential Nether Mind collective from 1993 to 1996, and her work has been featured at the Powerplant gallery in Toronto in "Naked State"(1994) and "Dialogue" (1997). Other exhibitions include "Skinjobs" (1999) at the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, "Vanitas" (2000) at the Angell Gallery, Toronto, "Our Darling" (2000) at Spin Gallery, Toronto, "Allegories" (2001) at the Women's Art Resource Centre, Toronto and "Gathering Shades: Catherine Heard and Ed Pien" (2002) at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.
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