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June Issue 2003
Black Mountain Center for the Arts in Black Mountain, NC, Features Works by Heather Allen
Heather Allen, a professional textile
artist who lived in Asheville, NC, for the last 8 years and who
has recently relocated to New England, will be featured at the
Black Mountain Center for the Arts in Black Mountain, NC. The
exhibition entitled, Journey, featuring a new body of mixed
media work will open June 6 and continue through June 28, 2003.
The inspiration for Allen's new body of work and her new way of working, developed out of her recent personal journey to relocate to the sea. While taking an evening ceramics class at a local ceramic center, Allen found in the direct tactile medium a freedom to explore the subconscious. The freedom of working in a new medium, and the directness that clay allows, tapped into a spontaneous and intuitive element of Allen. In her previous large architectural work Allen went through a labor-intensive process of sketching and translating her images into painted textiles. The work based on this process could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months to complete. In her new manner of working directly with a material, the small, intimate scale and immediacy of the process allows Allen to retain or capture the immediacy of an idea or subconscious feeling in a three dimensional form.
In creating
the works for this exhibition, Allen worked without sketching,
allowing for the direct expression of her subconscious and intuitive
ideas. The exhibition spans 2 1/2 years and is a visual diary
and exploration of herself on a journey to return to live by the
sea.
"I see the vessel or boat form as one of the most universal
and yet individual forms. I am using the vessel/pod shape as a
point of departure, to capture an emotion, an idea or response
to a specific period of time, similar to a journal entry,"
says Allen. Simultaneously archetypal and contemporary, these
vessels celebrate life as a journey. Each piece is a journey into
the unknown, there is a dialogue between herself and the material
culminating in a piece that allows her to see and understand herself
more clearly. The work speaks on a personal and at the same time
universal level.
Allen
holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth.
In 1995 she received a NEA Regional Fellowship and a Tennessee
Arts Commission Artist Fellowship. Allen's work has been shown
in invitational and juried exhibitions internationally, including
Handmade: Shifting Paradigms at the Singapore Art Museum. Other
exhibitions include the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show,
the Smithsonian Craft Show at the National Building Museum,
the Blue Spiral 1 Gallery and the Asheville Art Museum. Her work
is represented in numerous private and public collections in Australia,
British West Indies and the United States.
Allen's work has been featured in American Craft Magazine,
Fiberarts Magazine, Surface Design Journal, Art Quilt Magazine
as well as numerous books. Allen has written Weaving Contemporary
Rugs published by Lark Books as well as articles and exhibition
reviews for Surface Design Journal. Her teaching positions
and lecture venues include the Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont
School, the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth, and the Appalachian
Center for Crafts.
The Black
Mountain Center for the Arts showcases the rapidly evolving, innovative,
and provocative artwork of artist from across the United States.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings
or call the gallery at 828/669-0930.
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