hart.stormking.orgHeather Hart

MAY 13 – NOVEMBER 26, 2017 Outlooks: comprises an interactive sculptural environment in the form of a domestic rooftop—a space that, in collaboration with community partners, is repeatedly enlivened by music, workshops, movement, spoken word and poetry, and other events. Hart has titled this work The Oracle of Lacuna in reference to the gaps present in official, written histories of the Hudson Valley region—gaps that individuals fill and refill with interpretations and translations originating from personal experiences, as well as fantasies. As Hart has said, The narratives of The Oracle of Lacuna are meant to emerge and transform through public programming and viewer activation. I am interested not only in creating a site-specific liminal space for personal reclamation but also in unpacking dominant narratives and creating alternatives to them.” Hart is inspired by storytelling traditions, ideas of home, and narratives that add to, or even contradict, official written history. The roof is a recurring form in her work: it is a space between the earth and sky, between shelter and danger, between private and public. The rooftop carries a personal resonance for the artist as well—her father was a carpenter, and she also remembers as a child using her home’s own rooftop as a personal sanctuary. Hart sees carpentry as related to oral history in that it is a trade without official training, passed down from one person to another. Through the continued activation of the site she hopes to address oral histories and the slippage of meaning within them: when one person tells a story, the listener perceives something slightly different from what was originally told. In the months leading up to this project, Hart connected with local historians, artists, and residents to learn more about how regional histories of slavery, migration, and growth have shaped local communities. Underneath the rooftop, in the attic” space that the roof creates, roundtables organized and recorded by Hart in spring 2017 trace intersecting histories of Storm King’s region. Topics include the founding and history of Storm King itself, personal accounts of people of the African Diaspora migrating to and living in Storm King’s region, and the histories of displacement and change within local Native American communities. Visitors are permitted to walk atop and underneath Hart’s sculpture. Outlooks, now in its fifth year, is an exhibition series that invites one emerging or mid-career artist to engage with Storm King’s landscape and history and create a new, site-specific work to be installed on-site for a single season. Outlooks: is made possible by generous lead support from the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust. Additional support is also provided by VIA Art Fund and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Support for exhibition-related programming is provided by Agnes Gund and the Sidney E. Frank Foundation. Special thanks to the Goldie Anna Charitable Trust. Artist talks are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Organized by Nora Lawrence, Curator, Storm King Art Center. Watch Video: Outlooks: Video credits: Graham Mason Through her interdisciplinary practice (American, b. 1975) fuses fabricated and historical belief systems; legends that have been bequeathed through generations mixed with invention and intuition. Based in Brooklyn, NY, Hart was an artist in residence at Joan Mitchell Center, McColl Center of Art + Innovation, Bemis Center for Art, LMCC Workspace, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Santa Fe Art Institute, Fine Arts Work Center, and at the Whitney ISP. Hart received grants from Creative Capital, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Harpo Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and a fellowship from NYFA. Her work has been included in a variety of publications like The New York Times, Seattle Times, Time Out New York, ARTnews, Art in America, The Art Newspaper, Drawing Papers, The Stranger, and others. Hart’s work has also been exhibited widely including at Franconia Sculpture Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, University of Toronto, Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, Studio Museum in Harlem, ICA Philadelphia, Art in General, The Drawing Center, MoMA PS1, and the Brooklyn Museum among others. She studied at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Princeton University in New Jersey, and received her MFA from Rutgers University. For more information visit...