HELENA — Whitefish artist Heidi Faessel sought to capture the shared vulnerability many experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic. She used creativity to soothe her anxiety during a time of isolation and worry. MTN spoke with Faessel to understand the inspiration behind her work and what she hopes viewers take away.
“There was much time and isolation during that period, so exploring and experimenting was great. So, many pieces in the exhibit are born from experimentation. Initially, I start to play with the materials and see what they can do and their nature, and then once I’ve learned more about a material, I can manipulate it in a certain direction to say a certain thing.”
“Much of the work that's in this exhibit is made from either everyday materials, such as mailing wire, T-shirts, cardboard, you know, and whatnot, or salvage materials, where I've taken a lot of T-shirts and that belongs to my family, first my friends, then later the community, where I took them apart and manipulated them and reconstructed them into something different,” said Faessel.
Faessel has lived in Whitefish since 2002, and her recent work is on display now at the Holter Museum of Art’s Inside the Pause exhibition. She shared the process behind creating one of the works in the exhibition with MTN. “I used baling wire and T-shirts, nylon stockings, and cotton cords. I take the deconstructed T-shirts and dip them in black pigment into the spheres. Then I apply paper pulp to the sculpture.”
The everyday items Faessel uses allow them to take on a new form and interpretation while still representing those who owned them.
This exhibition also includes a piece of interactive artwork. Faessel explained, “For a work in the series made from discarded t-shirts I collected from my community, I tore them into long strips and then created these spheres. I love how they’re all piled up; the invitation is to come, hold, and play with them. And experience the ideas in them; what I was thinking of at the time was the interconnected nature of our lives.”
She hopes that people who see her exhibit will have a broader idea of what these everyday items can be used for and that it will inspire them to create their own work.
“It would be great if people could walk away and think, wow, look at these materials. I have these materials at my house and imagine all the different possible outcomes from using them, manipulating them to make something new or different, or to see ordinary materials through a new lens.”
The exhibition runs through the end of December at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena.
