Heather Goodchild in 'Women' at Silas Marder Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY

Heather Goodchild, 'Helen Stapleton Brown', wool felt

Women, a group exhibition exploring the fundamentals of the female featuring Kiki Smith, Connie Fox, Sally Egbert, Aurora Robson, Corinne von Lebusa, Heather Goodchild, and Emmanuelle Thayer Benard

October 16 – November 22

Silas Marder Gallery, Bridgehampton NY

Jennifer Landes, in her article “Women at Marder’s” for The East Hampton Star blog, describes how “Heather Goodchild’s felt masterpieces balance pattern, expert knife skills, and adept portraiture to present a folksy but sophisticated grouping of female busts looking as regal and powerful as the males that are typically depicted in this manner. A full-size bust portrait of Helen Stapleton Brown is as delicate and precise in its assemblage of tesseraes as the subject is fineboned and determined in her expression.

There is a sense of knowing these women, or at least of having seen them before, but their blend of modernity and nostalgia is dislocating and mysterious. The purpose behind their willful demeanors is unknown, evoking ideas of temperance, suffrage, and abolition. In her patchwork quilt of faces of designs, she spells out a message, “The Balanced Life Will Flourish,” that is somewhat clarifying but still unknowable, like an unfamiliar classical myth.”

 

http://www.heathergoodchild.com/womenatmarders.pdf