Heather Rowe: Green Desert
July 13 – August 11, 2006
Opening Reception: July 13, 6-8pm

In her first solo exhibition, Heather Rowe will present a single sculpture entitled Green Desert. Rowe's structures are architectural fragments that reference office spaces, corridors, or waiting rooms and are built out of familiar construction materials but take a departure from functionality. The introduction of figurative elements such as guillotines and glass or mirrored shards pushes the viewer to experience a sense of discomfort. The spatial dysfunction allows for various perspectives in which an open-ended narrative begins to unfold.

Green Desert, at once imposing and fragile, assumes a partial form of an inverted room in which the four corners have been turned in on themselves radiating outwards from the center of the gallery. Inspired by a scenario in which misinterpretations and assumptions occur between two people in close and intimate proximity, Rowe's awkward re-framing of the room reminds us of how you can be physically close to someone yet have complete psychological disconnect.

“. . . we can identify the different components of Rowe’s installations as individual frames. Each offers a unique perspective, yet all come together to tell an overarching story. Also, the temporal factor has to be considered. A film unfolds over time; only through the film’s duration can one put all the loose fragments and story-lines together. To confront Rowe’s work requires a similar approach. Although, unlike in a filmic situation, where the viewer rests in one position, here the viewer has to walk around the work. And it takes time to assemble the ‘frames.’”
—Simone Subal, “Things Fall Apart All Over Again” Artists Space, New York, NY (2005)

Heather Rowe graduated with an MFA from Columbia University in 2001 and has shown in Things Fall Apart All Over Again, curated by Simone Subal and Cecilia Alemani at Artists Space, New York; Good Titles from Bad Books, curated by Matthew Brannon at Kevin Bruk Gallery, Miami; and Mystic River, curated by Noah Sheldon at Southfirst Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. In the upcoming year, Rowe will show at White Columns, New York; Galerie Michael Zink, Munich, Germany; and at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH.