Jenny Heishman

Air Space

March 3 – April 1, 2001

Location / 1205 E. Pike

"Sculptures resulting from the artist's fascination with the unknown and partially hidden in life. The scaled-to-the-body sculptures define space with as little material as possible. Materials include paper, Mylar, papier-mâché, polystyrene board, mirror, and light." — Jenny Heishman

From "Air on the Side of Art," by Emily Hall, The Stranger, March 2001:

Some things only appear to be inexplicable. Animal attraction, it turns out, is due to pheromones, and at last count there are about 30,000 genes determining the same number of things about our bodies, and perhaps ourselves. This too can be true in the art world, when work affects you on some level you can't articulate, and this very vagueness struck me in the middle of air space, Jenny Heishman's series of sculptural installations at SOIL: I loved the work, but for the life of me could not say why.

When in doubt, look carefully. In the gallery's largest room, Sliding Scale travels the whole length of a wall. Long pieces of tracing paper painted with elongated ovals are stretched between the wall and the floor at varying heights, so that they appear to be rising or falling, depending on where you stand. The painted areas, which start at bright yellow and progress by degrees through orange to red, have puckered the paper into long ripples. It's tremendously lovely to look at: the variation in surfaces (rippling paint, smooth paper), the implied kinetic motion of the sheets, the bright, clear colors. In the corner is Party Favor, a huge wavy piece of clear Mylar, held in shape by undulating orange polystyrene forms, that appears to be suspended in the air (in fact it's propped up on clear poles). There's something altogether friendly and funny about this work: these days it's rare to see funny out on the town without its constant companion, irony.

Of course, it's not necessary to go in search of pointy-headed reasons to enjoy this work. It can also be quite enough to spend some time in the gallery (preferably when empty) and to feel the way the air-shape shifts around the sculptures, and around you. Ultimately, air space works because you feel safe in Heishman's hands. Her conception of space is fluid, but her vision is solid.