Laura Heit: Two Ways Down May 2–June 14, 2014

Laura Heit: Two Ways Down
May 2–June 14, 2014

Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce a solo exhibition with Laura Heit whose immersive artwork will transform the gallery space into an animated theater of constant flux and
transformation. Known for her animation and performance work, this show is the first time that Heit will present her art in an installation format.

On view this May will be Heit’s new hand drawn animated installation Two Ways Down, which takes inspiration from the Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Reflecting on the momentary nature of life, Heit’s fantastical piece uses thrown shadows from tabletop dioramas and reflected and refracted animated projections to create a fleeting world where human-animal hybrids, spectors and body parts morph and flit across the walls.

The hellscape panel of Bosch's famous triptych depicts the torment of damnation. It is a crowded and chaotic underworld where giant ears crush miniature figures, where torture chambers, demons and birdheaded monsters offer cautionary tales against earthly temptations and misdeeds. Heit, reacting to the recent extreme climate deadly wildfires, wild polar vortices, blizzards and deadly floods makes a more playful and contemporary version of the demented scenes and tortured souls found in Bosch's devastated landscape.

Simple line drawings of human-animal
hybrids and disembodied heads, legs and torsos are animated and looped. These bits and pieces of body parts, which the artist calls "microbodies", frantically move and morph across the picture plane. Silhouettes cut from paper and glass hang from the ceiling of the space, catching bits of activity and throwing it across the room, transforming two-dimensional line drawings and the flatness of the projection into a spatial experience. Light shines through a group of handmade dioramas that cast flying figures into this surreal landscape. The gallery space is transformed into an immersive theater as the light, movement and shadows evolve and unfold the plot. Mistakes are embraced, chance is rewarded and the process is revealed, commenting on the fragility of existence and the absurdity of human condition.

Two Ways Down depicts the momentary nature of life with a dense landscape of souls, all in a constant state of transition and flux. They will walk, slither, wriggle, fly, burn, and return to dirt in an endless loop of
deconstruction and resurrection.

Laura Heit lives and works in Portland, Oregon. She is an experimental filmmaker and a performance artist. Her work has been featured at museums and film festivals around the world including The Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; The Anthology Film Archives, New York, NY. She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, most recently from the Regional Arts & Culture Council, Portland, OR and their 2014 Innovation Award for this project. Heit has a BFA in Film from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an MFA from the Royal College of Art, London.