Sally Heller + bio | statement | press

New Orleans-based artist, Sally Heller, creates unique structures that are at once familiar and strange by presenting mass-produced, disposable objects in unusual contexts.  Through a process of subtle twists and turns she strips everyday detritus and disposable, low-end consumer goods of their original use-value, recycling them into organic forms that are repositioned in room-size installations, creating bizarre landscapes from the generic and “proliferous” discards of our disposable lifestyles. Fascinated by the poetics of contradictions, oxymorons and double entendres, Heller is less interested in her work’s inherent commentary on consumerism, waste and ecology than she is in seeing humor in our world’s plasticized realities.

Amused by the comedy of making fine art from the most mundane of materials, Heller states: “ I have always been fascinated with the potential of mass-marketed products when viewed outside of their intended context. I am interested in what our culture discards and what can be made from this detritus…” Using wit as a tool for political commentary, Heller transforms weak, mundane materials into strong, solid forms and meaningful visual statements that confront perceptions of femininity, the temporality of art and culture, and the state of modern society, albeit in an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek manner.

The photographs provide documentation of the installations and are expressive as abstract paintings; their immediacy clearly reveals the dynamic energy that goes into building these colorful and animated installations. In the photographs, one can make out the havoc caused by nature’s powers, yet the intensity of the color and wry plastic objects evoke anything but disaster.  They are highly finished and elegant objects.

Distortion occurs when the camera is placed against mirrored mylar, a plastic material Heller uses in her installations. The photograph is of the reflection of the installation in the mylar. They are not digitally manipulated; ripples in the surface of the mylar cause the warping of the image.

In a different series of prints, Heller encapsulates the physical presence of her materials by revealing areas of intense color and linear configurations. Taken from her window installations at Bergdorf Goodman in New York, popular culture blends with artistic practice to make lively and engaging images.

Sally Heller’s work has been shown nationally, she lives and works in New Orleans, LA.