ULRIKE HEYDENREICH
23/05/–20/06/2009

 

Artist statement

Longing for the unattainable motivates the human impulse for exploration and invention. Through imagination we emanate out beyond boundaries of the known and orientate ourselves in yet uncharted territories. With my sculptures and drawings I am simultaneously contemplating this phenomenon, as well as being part of this process itself. The objects I invent – at once whimsical and utilitarian – are reflections upon a physical and emotional navigation and orientation.

For some time I have been working with maps and cartography, I explored the notion of flight and the aerial perspective that is inherent to maps. Recently I have moved towards investigating specific locations, their coordinates and an individual’s radial view from these vantage points. With this in mind I designed the Panorama Drawing Device – a tool that consists of an elevated platform just high enough off the ground to enable a change of perspective. Once I step up into the device a drawing board surrounds me at shoulder level on which I am able to create 360-degree panoramic drawings of my surrounding for as far as I can see. In addition to focusing on a careful representation of landscape or interior, I am exploring preconceived ideas of perspective and ultimately depiction of one’s reality.

In my studio practice, preliminary drawings play a central role. By composing and reconfiguring drawn images, I am able to reach combinations that seem to me worthy of extending into three dimensions. Serving to solidify inner pictures and ideas, they act as a space for the incubation of sculptural work.

My single-line drawings are decidedly precise in detail and are reduced to only necessary information. In these drawings, I accumulate objects in relation to one another and construct vignettes emblematic of narrative situations and spaces.

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