In the multi dimensional installation “Silent Faces/Angkor,” Mary Heebner knits together imagery and writing to create an elemental, spiritual, and involving interpretation of the myths of the ancient Angkor temple complex that plays on the links she has found between human and geographic forms. Ms. Heebner often turns to myth to broaden her understanding of the bonds between humans and the earth. When she went to Cambodia's Angkor temple complex in 2000 and 2001, she began a series she called “geography of a face” to further her exploration of the connection between human and geographic form. Through both drawing and photography she engaged Angkor Wat's 12th-century frieze, the “Churning of the Sea of Milk,” and the other sculptural works there. While humans have always carved likenesses in stone, those figures just as surely erode and return to the earth. The ancient myth she studied and the eroded faces she read as maps shaped her path to creation of the books, scroll paintings, drawings and texts that make up this striking and profound installation. Ms. Heebner is an internationally known painter, book artist, writer, publisher, and installation artist with works in public and private institutions including the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art, The British Library, the New York Public Library, The J. P. Getty Research Library, Dartmouth College, the University of California, and Stanford University. A luncheon buffet will be served following the gallery talk by artist Mary Heebner.
Website: www.wesleyan.edu/mansfield/exhibitions
Phone: 860-685-2330
