September 16 - January 16, 2011
Free opening reception - September 16 from 5-8pm.
“Heidi Fowler>>Re:USE”
Artist Re-uses Everyday Materials
Artist Heidi Fowler makes paintings inspired by photographs taken from the car window. Using the photo as a point of departure, Fowler then uses collage materials to reconstruct the landscape. “Because I am passionate about caring for and protecting our environment for future generations, I use eco-friendly art supplies as much as possible,” said Fowler from her Reston, Virginia studio. “I build my artwork with water-soluble oils and acrylics combined with recycled everyday objects like junk mail, work shirts, and phone book pages.”
While her images are serene and beautiful, she dually illuminates cell phone towers, bridges, transformer boxes and other steel impediments. While these devices are necessary to contemporary society they also interrupt the aesthetics of the natural world. “My most recent work reflects a challenge I made to myself—further my exploration of man’s relationship with the environment by portraying landscapes which used less and less paint and more re-used objects that would otherwise be thrown out—egg cartons, plastic cup lids, empty tape rolls, and CD inserts,” she added. Specifically, bottle caps are significant in her work. “The use of recycled bottle caps has allowed the community to be involved in this idea by collecting and donating caps. Simultaneously, the bottle caps touch on yet another realm of our dependence: water.”
“Re:USE” will also feature a sound component. “I am excited to have had the opportunity to collaborate with my husband, Steve, a seasoned sound engineer and musician. Steve and I went out and recorded various environmental sounds, both natural and man-made. He came back to his studio where he mixed, or collaged, them together,” said Fowler. Visitors will be surrounded by sounds that complement the imagery in the paintings. “The results are played in a continuous loop which begins quietly with crickets and birds. Then gradually there are more and more manufactured elements—cars, buses, planes, motorcycles and construction—until the listeners find themselves surrounded by traffic and sounds of the city. Then, the cacophony fades out into the buzz of the power lines.”
OPENING RECEPTION: September 16, 5-8pm
Heidi Fowler’s exhibition - 6:30 pm
Sculpture by John R.G. Roth will be unveiled at 7:00 pm.
ALSO THAT NIGHT: Film Screening, 35 Seconds
35 Seconds is a 13-minute documentary film that features nine Haitian people who lived through the country’s devastating earthquake. Three weeks after the 7.0 quake, three American artists, story-tellers, Dustin Miller and Eric T. Hires of the collaborative, FleshProfitsNothing, along with independent artist, Nathan b Lewis , traveled to Port-au-Prince and Petit Goave to tell the tale of survival and horror. The film is entirely in Creole with English subtitles. Additionally, found objects documenting the destruction in Haiti will be on view in the Museum’s Price Auditorium vestibule. Donations to benefit Haitian earthquake survivors will be collected that evening.
Contemporary Arts Center
2200 Parks Avenue, Virginia Beach, VA
Admission: $7 - adults, $5 - Seniors, Students and Active Military.
Children ages 4-14 - $3, and CAC members and children under the age of 4 - free.
Hours of operation: Tuesday -Friday 10am to 5pm; Saturday, 10am to 4pm and Sunday, noon to 4pm.
Call 757.425.0000 or visit www.cacv.org.
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