Heidi Taillefer "An Uncanny Lineup of Serendipitous Connections"
Joshua Liner Gallery
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Reflecting on life as a mixture of discovery, inevitability, and coincidence, Taillefer’s suite of twelve oil-on-canvas works presents a literalized depiction of destiny. Her dreamy paintings describe chimerical beings: humans with animal and mechanical parts, or animals with multiple limbs, wings, and utterly fantastical provenance. In each, Taillefer puts forth a coded, highly personalized origin myth—an “uncanny lineup of serendipitous connections” that for the artist shapes identity and purpose through transformation.
Birth of Venus is an updated riff on Botticelli’s iconic work. Here, “Venus” is a common tabby, newly sprung from a broken shell and bearing mechanical wings. Amid intergalactic dust and a spiral of cosmic fireflies, this relaxed kitty is more concerned with cleaning itself. Taillefer suggests that instinct and attitude are just as important to development as our genetic birthright. The Most Proximate Cause also comments on the elements that compose and constitute “destiny.” Taillefer offers a modern-day Damocles, cowering under a canopy of choices. Hanging above this anonymous nude, male subject is a crushing load of gears, blades, cogs, and other mechanical parts, an analogue to the pressures and excesses of modern life. The Angels of our Nature is a visual summary of Taillefer’s personal creation myth. Bringing together the realms of sea and land, air and matter, animal and human, the painting depicts life transformations that occur in body and spirit, with the central image of the individual as warrior.
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Schedule
from May 30, 2009 to June 27, 2009