Heather Van Uxem Lewis

My current body of work explores themes of sexuality in a particular momentary form- time stops and words fail, this is the moment of influence and inspiration, moments of intense passion and lust. Straddling the lines between sculpture, painting and installation, my work flourishes in a variety of media and locations, utilizing the character of each space to enlighten how I create and present my work. Filming in digital video, I project images onto primarily latex, vinyl and other materials in order to explore, define and recreate a sensation or moment.  The projections and the hand-poured latex combination create a sense of detachment- as the viewer begins to sense the depth of the moment; it is as an outsider, voyeur, or bystander. My influences come from the films of Salvador Dali and Federico Fellini as well as the plays of Samuel Beckett mixed with images of from Francis Bacon and Louise Bourgeois, the provocative object of Piero Manzoni and the sensual objects of Maurizio Pellegrin, creating a cacophony of images and sensations from which to draw.