Bethany Haeseler
Portland, Maine, USA
http://art-geek.com/
Bethany Haeseler will be reworking her Fruitloops piece into a fuller garment for the runway show.
Theme: General
Bio:
At first glance, it is hard to recognize what some sculptural components are actually made of. Is this beautiful glass? It certainly looks like it, and it's in a gallery, but if the audience touches it, the stickiness exposes it's true nature. Like glass, the hard candy is fragile, but instead of being a vessel or being a piece of jewelry, it's intended to provide an option to be consumed.
My work explores body adornment, consumable artwork, and desire. Narrative stories influence the works, recreating aspects of past personal experience as a woman affected battles with Anorexia and Bulimia. In my work, I utilize techniques that I practice in creating kiln formed glass to make works with materials that mimic it: hard candy and sugar.
Like glass, the hard candy is fragile, but instead of being a vessel or being a piece of jewelry, it's intended to provide an option to be consumed. To a corset made of hard candy, I add Syrup of Ipecac to the formula, in order to induce vomiting as a way to temper the consumption of the sweets that might otherwise adorn the body as fat.
Through video, attendant to the candy piece, I present an image the experience of consuming beyond the point of satisfaction, in order to satisfy others. I also offered (safe) sweets as gifts to the audience in a performance work, the cravings of the audience are satisfied, while the artist is denied these very pleasures. Since this all comes down to memory, the process and even motion of making the works is as significant as the final product.
The use of performance and the human figure is especially integral to my work. Through performance and body adornment, I am able to express notions that may otherwise be lost or ignored. My body becomes the sculpture. Objects are crafted to accompany and document experiences.
I create artwork because I want to understand the world around me. It is through this process that I can sort through my thoughts and resolve my questions. Whether through material & process or the organization of words in poetry, it is the only way that I know how to view the world.
-Bethany Haeseler
Bethany Haeseler is an emerging artist based in Portland, Maine. Bethany’s work explores disordered eating through a combination of object making, body adornment, and performance.
In 2009, Bethany completed her Master of Fine Arts in Glass from The Ohio State University.
photo: Justin Moore
photo: Justin Moore
photo: Bob Raymond
photo: Hans Wendland
photo: ichifoto
photo: Shil Sengupta
