RAIR | 2010-11

Anna Hepler | Portland, ME

Anna Hepler has exhibited widely, and her work can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; the Tate Modern in London, England; the Library of Congress in Washington, DC; and the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, Maine, among many others. She received her BA from Oberlin College and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

annahepler.com

During the exhibition Reflected in Real Time I used the gallery as a studio to create, on site, a floor-sized woodcut and a monumental inflatable sculpture - each reflecting the image of the other.

The woodcut image, like many folk art motifs, is an abstraction of something familiar. In this case it appears as both a flower and a firework but is not attempting to portray either. My interest in this image stems from something more abstract and meditative - the form is quiet, idealized in its geometry; it is graphically dynamic, yet remains still.

The inflatable sculpture, hanging from the ceiling and looking something like an inverted dandelion whorl, is in many ways the opposite of the woodcut image. It has limbs that rise when inflated, and fall as the air escapes. Air is delivered by an electric blower which periodically fills and empties the plastic form like a lung. Never reaching a fixed state, the form is disheveled, shifting, and alive.

Like alter egos these two parts are merged only by memory, and in my imagination where a third, composite impression takes shape.

Roswell Museum and Art Center

Rair exhibition • Anna Hepler “Reflected in real time" • March 4 - April 17, 2011