A Solo Exhibition by Heath Flagtvedt
On View from January 19th to February 23rd, 2018
Whether delight or repulsion first comes to you as you approach Heath Flagtvedt’s strange goo says more about your diet and hormones than it does about the things he has a hand in making. Flagtvedt’s plastic-based sculptural works and membranous digital prints alike result from his commitment to a particularly intuitive and gestural kind of process art. He sets up base rules for himself and his generative systems, whether the computational parameters and functions that generate the prints, or the physical application of a heat gun to colorful plastic table covers and straws that brings forth the sculptures. Like a maniacal product-tester, or the Yahweh of Job, he subjects his materials to the stresses of heat and pressure and the inclinations of his own hand, working at the threshold at which the plastic begins to degrade and deform. These biomorphic pillars and crispy organs are the fruits of an anaphora of actions—through the body, out of the body, away from the body, back to the body. They’ve been fished out of a Jungian stew of muscle memories, heavy reading, constant curiosity, close observations, and a dancing id. They’re like creatures from our dreams, tagged on the ears and long abandoned, that have returned to us, like therapy dogs, to alleviate our trips to the dmv, the airport, the store, the doctor’s office, and family parties. – Tex Kerschen
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Born Aberdeen, SD, 1973. Middle school and high school in Arlington, TX. In 1994 Heath dropped out of art school and moved to Houston to play music with Jana Hunter. In 2000, a car wreck, which destroyed all the knuckles of his right hand, ended the band. He currently splits time between Houston TX and Goldendale, WA.