Remnant Victoria Mara Heilweil 2015
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| Remnant: 21 months, 26 days © 2011 Victoria Mara Heilweil, archival pigment print on watercolor paper, 27” x 22” |
Remnant
Photography by Victoria Mara Heilweil
January 9–February 7, 2015
Reception: January 9 • 5–8pm
My photographic art practice transforms images of the mundane into the sublime. The ordinary is invisible; we see it and pass it by. I make visible that which we take for granted. Inspired by Wabi Sabi, a philosophy and aesthetic that comes from Japanese Buddhism, I utilize marks as individual narratives. Vestiges are intimate and revealing, unique and historical, intimate and almost embarrassing. My images capture the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete; of things modest and humble.
Marks are often seen as ugly or undesirable, particularly in a disposable culture that fetishizes the clean and the new. My series, Remnant, reflects both the intimate relationship I have with my daughter, and the ritualistic routine of diapering. To create the images in Remnant, I scanned traces of my daughter’s diaper stains, converted them to black and white, and printed them on watercolor paper. This process transforms a “taboo” material into abstract ephemeral photographs.
Motherhood is at its essence temporal. Becoming a parent has made me very consciously aware of time and the ways in which we mark it. Remnant is an exploration of marks over a period of a year and a half.
Bio:
Victoria Mara Heilweil is a nationally exhibited photographic artist, curator and educator. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from California College of the Arts in 1995. Her work has been included in exhibitions at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, Intersection for the Arts, RayKo Photo Center, the Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum, wall space gallery, California State University Chico Art Gallery, Minneapolis Photo Center, and the Washington Square Art Galleries. She has also created public and community based art works in conjunction with the ZERO1 Bienniale in San Jose, CA and the Bayview Opera House in San Francisco, CA. In July 2015, Victoria will be an artist in residence at the de Young Museum.
Victoria is both an independent curator and a founding member of MicroClimate Collective, an artist created curatorial project, which has produced eleven exhibitions over the past six years.
In addition to her exhibition and curatorial history, Victoria has taught for the past 19 years at colleges and community centers. www.victoriaheilweil.com
