People are not hanging their laundry out to dry these days; It's just too cold outside. But what then are those two towers of clothes hanging in front of the Visual Arts Center? Adrienne Heflich '05, the artist of Gate, discussed with me her ideas and influences.
Orient: What had you been making before you decided to make the clothes towers?
Adrienne Heflich: In the fall semester I had been doing mostly sculpture. I think that space, a piece's physical presence, can be incredibly significant and can speak directly to everyone. We all have bodies.
O: What was your process?
AH: Gate is essentially an experiment in design. I had some notions that I wanted to communicate: how essential the human form is to architecture, the lovely symmetry of the campus and how we might not always notice it. Then I just drew a basic sketch and had to convince various parties on campus to let me do this. They were very supportive.
O: What gave you the idea to make Gate?
AH: I think the symmetry and scale of the Fishbowl is interesting but not agreeable with all types of work. Therefore, I wanted to make something that was a union of my artistic ideas and the potential of the space. I was interested in the irony of a monolith being soft and expressive. Also, as a practical issue and maybe most importantly, I had the possibility of borrowing a large amount of clothing from Bowdoin's excellent Costume Shop.
O: Why did you choose to use clothing?
AH: Again, it was readily available to me in large quantities. It's modular, meaning that there are multiples of it in similar sizes. Clothes also gently suggest the human form. I was really drawn to the idea of bodies metaphorically supporting and being the building.
O: How did you react to your piece when you finished it?
AH: I was a little startled that I had made something so big and imposing. But then I saw the delicate shadows Gate creates in the morning and got over the anxiety.
O: How do you want other people to react to it?
AH: I hope it might make some people more aware of how the built world shapes their experiences. It's a subjective thing, however. Take from it what you will.
O: What do you think of Cristo and Jean-Claude's Gates in Central Park?
AH: I think Christo and Jean-Claude do some really great things by reinvigorating the way people perceive a site. Who can ever look at Central Park the same way? They are a little flashy for my taste, however. Ultimately, I tend to get more interested in how they financed and organized the piece than the site it's on because their use of materials is so abstract and divorced from place. But then, I haven't experienced any of their work personally. I really do believe that that's where the value would lie.
O: Does that kind of work influence you?
AH: It gave me the gumption to follow through with my work but it was not a main inspiration. I titled my piece Gate partly as a wink to the project in Central Park but it was just a fun coincidence that the projects overlap.
O: How does that kind of scale impact the viewer/participant?
AH: One of the best parts of the Gates in Central Park is that they involve the variable of time due to their scale. You can never really see all of them at once. That invites a whole slew of other issues?narrative, chance, change? into the experience of the work.
Gate is on view at the VAC until March 3 as part of Adrienne Heflich and Brooke Winter-DiGirolamo's senior art show entitled "New Work."