Accession Number2010/1.208
TitleThrough the Glass
Artist(s)Heather RoweObject Creation Date2008Medium & Supportchiffon, wood, mirror, wallpaper, furDimensions 70 in. x 78 in. x 32 in. ( 177.8 cm x 198.12 cm x 81.28 cm )
Credit LineMuseum PurchaseSubject matterHeather Rowe's art sits precariously at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, and installation, and her hybrid, fragmentary constructions derive their aesthetic frisson from her (or their) refusal to adhere to the norms of any one discipline. The sense of the work as neither one thing nor another is heightened by an attention to transitional spaces: corridors, stud-walls, windows and doorways. Interior and exterior space collapse into one another as the raw materials of construction - modular units of drywall, lumber, glass, and metal - are combined with more decorative elements. Interstitial spaces reveal swatches of carpet or wallpaper, while shards of mirror incorporate the surrounding space in a fragmented patchwork of reflections.
Although keenly aware of such predecessors as Bruce Nauman's corridor installations, Robert Smithson's mirror displacements, and Gordon Matta-Clark's building cuts, Rowe's work combines formal and conceptual rigor with a psychological ambivalence and narrative tension in a manner both highly original and thoroughly contemporary.
Primary Object Classification Mixed Media Primary Object TypeassemblageRightsIf you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit
http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Keywords
assemblages (sculpture)
looking glasses
wood (plant material)