Artist: Heather Komus of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Interview 76: Heather exhibited in the major 2012 Festival exhibition De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) at Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre in Oakville, Ontario.
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Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
Biography
Heather Komus was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and earned her Bachelor of Fine Art Honours from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2009. Heather is a mixed media artist concerning herself primarily with embroidery, handmade paper and corporeal materials such as hair, pig intestine and dried squid. Her work stems from an interest in biology and is highly research based. She is interested in microscopic processes, fecundity, infestations, parasitism, chaos and disorder with projects specifically investigating entomology, microorganisms, plant science and paleogeology. Organic matter manufactured by a body holds an immense amount of power and as humans living in a highly manufactured environment this contact can be grounding and can bring us back to the raw, visceral experience of being alive. Heather has exhibited work in Manitoba in solo and group exhibitions. In 2010 Heather was selected for the MAWA mentorship program to be mentored by curator Jenny Western with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art. In 2011 Heather investigated local parasites at the Deep Bay Artist Residence in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba. The Manitoba Arts Council and the Winnipeg Arts Council have supported Heather’s work.
Heather's website.
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Artist: Heather Komus |
Tell us about your work?
My work investigates chaos, disorder and our relationship to the natural world. It is research based and quite process oriented. In my installations I aim to create truly physical experiences, not only visual but ones that can be experienced in the body as well. I am interested in the interplay between attraction and repulsion. I embroider handmade paper, pig intestine and dried squid. I also sculpt with these materials and incorporate hair, snakeskin, dyes, plastic and various found materials into my work. My work draws from various areas of biology including: microbiology; entomology; plant science; geology and paleogeology.
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Gorge and Grow (detail), embroidery on handmade paper with pig intestine, horse and human hair and other materials, variable dimensions, 2010, photo: Takashi Iwasaki |
From where do you get your inspiration?
I get inspiration from National Geographic magazines, documentaries, exploring new ecosystems and other scientific reading. Usually I will discover something and then I will take a few days to do some in-depth research. Often I am just as excited by the research than what comes of it. Lately I have been reading about paleogeology and prehistoric life. Sometimes I will dwell on a number, like with my installation Gorge and Grow, I was preoccupied with how the termite queen expels up to 86,000 eggs a day. I am always excited to learn more about entomology, the functioning of our own bodies or anything showing the power of the microscopic in the world.
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Gorge and Grow (detail), pig intestine on handmade paper, variable dimensions, 2010, photo: Nancy Arnold |
Why did you choose to go into fibre art?
I have always been drawn to obsessive detail, process and physicality in my materials. I want to really work things with my hands, piercing, probing and deeply knowing the material, not just using it's surface. A lot of fibre art seems to evolve from a very deep, close relationship with your materials. I mainly use embroidery in a linear manner so it is more of a drawing tool for me.
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Protoplasm, wire, paper mache, human hair, pig intestine, 6' x 8', 2009, photo: Bob Talbot |
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Protoplasm (detail), wire, paper mache, human hair, pig intestine, 6' x 8', 2009, photo: Bob Talbot |
Which is your favourite fibre medium?
My favourite fibre medium is embroidery and it has been my medium of choice since I was in school. I also make handmade paper, have done some quilting and am currently working on making a book with embroidered intestine sheets. I enjoy slow, meditative processes. Embroidery is such a painstakingly slow process that it seems to challenge contemporary ideas about time; ours lives becoming increasingly more hectic. I have always been someone who would prefer to do things at a slower pace so embroidery is perfectly suited to my sensibilities. Embroidery is a way to truly know a material since you are touching, smelling and holding it so close to you. This is something I really noticed when embroidering pig intestine and dried squid. This so-called "gentle female craft" became suddenly so violent, with real animal smells in my face and under my fingernails. I am literally piercing an animal's body over and over again.
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Gorge and Grow (detail), embroidery on handmade paper and fabric with pig intestine, horse and human hair and other materials, variable dimensions, 2010, photo: Takashi Iwasaki |
What other mediums do you work in, and how does this inform your fibre work?
I work in installation but I feel everything is integrated and I don't usually define or label what I am doing. With my installations Gorge and Grow and Muddy Waters, I used fibre techniques like embroidery and handmade paper. Because of my interest in fibre I feel my installations will always involve a close relationship to my materials and a lot of process.
What bridges the works that you have created in differing media?
When I was in school I did some painting, drawing and ceramics. In everything I have created there has usually been a biological theme with a lot of detail in the imagery.
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Gorge and Grow (detail), handmade paper with chicken wire and flagging tape, variable dimensions, 2010, photo: Nancy Arnold |
What specific historic artists have influenced your work?
Georgia O'Keefe (USA, 1887-1986) – I am especially drawn to her paintings done in New Mexico of skulls and bones, as her work embodies the big sky and vast expanses of the desert so well. For me an artist's life is just as interesting as their work. I would love to live as she did in New Mexico. She felt that her bone paintings had a lot more to do with life than death and I feel the same way about using organic matter. Even if I am using a dead squid body, it seems to be more an investigation into life. I also see every organism as part of an ecosystem where death means birth for another organism.
Eva Hesse (USA, 1936-1970) – I have long been drawn to Eva Hesse's work for it's organic forms and colours and her inventive use of materials. It is amazing to me that her synthetic materials look so organic and have such a warm, witty, bodily presence. Especially striking are her skin-like pieces such as Contingent and I am working on a large intestine sheet that is quite influenced by this piece.
Anselm Keifer (German, born 1945) – I enjoy his almost violent, highly textural manner of painting. I have always been drawn to various encrustations like lichens or rust and so seeing one of his massive paintings in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Centre, with a large, rusted piece of metal embedded into it, was quite exciting. He was quite inspiring in the way I make paper, that there can never be enough texture. His thick encrusted paint, muted colours and the desolate sadness of his work, draw me in.
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Gorge and Grow (detail), pig intestine on handmade paper with flagging tape and plastic net, variable dimensions, 2010, photo: Nancy Arnold |
What specific contemporary artists have influenced your work?
Judy Pfaff (USA, born 1946) – I love her sense of wild play; I really get the sense that she is having fun with her installations. I suppose I am more drawn to her more organic installations, the forms seem to grow and spread in a natural manner. My goal is to create installations that exist in a similar manner, with wild, unrestrained forms stretching all over. I feel that is the ideal way to say something about the natural world.
Wim Delvoye (Belgian, born 1965) – I can relate to his deep interest in the body. It gets me quite excited to think that he was able to hire a team of scientists to work with him on Cloaca to figure out how a machine could emulate human digestion. The processes of the body fascinate me and to have the whole digestive system exposed, but also the waste shrink wrapped after it comes out, is fascinating and hilarious at the same time.
I would like to add that I am quite influenced by the films of Wernor Herzog (German, born 1942). His films depict people interacting with nature in a raw, realistic manner and he has also investigated beauty in chaos. I feel that we see the natural world in a similar light, as wild, chaotic and ruthless.
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Gorge and Grow (detail), embroidery on handmade paper with pig intestine, horse and human hair and other materials, variable dimensions, 2010, photo: Lasha Mowchun |
What other fibre artists are you interested in?
Mary-Anne Wensley (Canadian) – I was very excited to find someone else making installations with intestine. She lights the intestine, beautifully capturing its warm translucent qualities.
Doris Salcedo (Columbia, born 1958) – she uses intestine in a way where material and subject work very powerfully together, as her work deals with the violence of the civil war in Columbia and the many missing people. The intestine is all the more powerful, especially in projects like Atrabiliarios where empty boxes were made out of intestine, almost like empty skins.
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Gorge and Grow, embroidery on handmade paper and fabric with pig intestine, horse and human hair and other materials, variable dimensions, 2010, photo: Takashi Iwasaki |
What role do you think fibre art plays in contemporary art?
I think that fibre art is just another medium you can use. It usually involves a very close relationship with your materials, specifically really working things with your hands. In contemporary fibre art there is a lot of cross over from other mediums that I think is very exciting.
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Muddy Waters (detail), embroidery on dried squid with pig intestine, variable dimensions, 2011, photo: Kevin Bertram |
When did you first discover your creative talents?
I started creating art at a very young age. When I wasn't making art, I was engaged in other creative activities such as writing. I was always very excited to make things with my hands, crafting at a young age and eventually learning to knit. If I saw something that excited me, I would have to represent it somehow.
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Muddy Waters (detail), embroidery on dried squid with pig intestine, variable dimensions, 2011, photo: Kevin Bertram |
Please explain how you developed your own style.
When I was in school I explored, experimented and tried many different things. I think it was helpful to let go of the idea that my work was precious. This helped me be more open-minded and discover new things. For a while everything was an experiment and I didn't really consider it art. When I started to embroider, I stuck to a simple stitch, using it as more of a drawing medium. My handmade paper evolved into very physically dense pieces with horse and human hair, plastic, chicken wire, lichen and other materials. At that time I was preoccupied with creating very physical, textured work. I realized I was interested in attraction/repulsion when I started working with large quantities of human hair. A professor suggested pig intestine and right away I was hooked. I wrapped it around things, stretched it, and eventually found some processes that worked for me. In my piece Protoplasm and my installation Gorge and Grow, I wrapped the intestine around little water balloons and let it dry to make egg-like forms. Currently I am stretching intestine to make flat sheets that can be embroidered.
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Muddy Waters (detail), embroidery on handmade paper and dried squid with pig intestine, horse hair and other materials, variable dimensions, 2011, photo: Kevin Bertram |
What is your philosophy about the Art that you create?
I would like my work to question a persons boundaries and their ideas about living in the world. I aim to confront people with the realities of nature and challenge the idea that we are the dominant species. Each human body is an ecosystem where human cells are vastly outnumbered by other species 9 to 1. There are 200 million insects for every person and in the soil of the average football field more creatures than there are human beings in the entire world. People think that there is a clean divide between nature and civilization, but if there were, where would the cockroaches and bedbugs fit in? A disease or infestation is all it might take to assert our smallness. The truly physical experiences with the natural world, however uncomfortable, are often cathartic and bring moments of true clarity.
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Muddy Waters (detail),
embroidery on dried squid with pig intestine,
variable dimensions |
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Muddy Waters (detail), handmade paper with pig intestine, dried squid, horse hair and other materials, variable dimensions, 2011, photo: Kevin Bertram |
Tell us about your studio and how you work:
I have a shared studio in Winnipeg's Exchange District. Since embroidery takes so long I like to spend long days there, as it feels I am getting more done that way. I almost always listen to something, usually music, the radio or audio books. I also brew a lot of tea because it's nice to be comfortable when you are embroidering. I usually spend long days doing one thing such as a day when I just make handmade paper or stretch sheets of intestine.
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Heather embroidering pig intestine, 2011, photo: Greg Hanec |
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Some of Heather's materials, 2012, photo: Heather Komus |
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Heather's studio, 2012, photo credit: Heather Komus |
Where do you imagine your work in five years?
I would like to have really expanded my scale. I imagine I will have traveled, done more residencies, learned new things and expanded my vocabulary and processes. I will possibly go to grad school and I imagine that will greatly influence my work.
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Muddy Waters, embroidery on handmade paper and dried squid with pig intestine, horse hair and other materials, variable dimensions, 2011, photo: William Eakin |
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Muddy Waters (detail),
embroidery on handmade paper and dried squid with pig intestine, horse hair and other materials,
variable dimensions,
2011,
photo: William Eakin |
What interests you about the World of Threads festival?
I happened across the submission call online and felt it would be a great opportunity to show my work outside of Manitoba alongside international artists. I also see it as an opportunity to discover new materials and processes.
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Probe (work in progress), embroidery on pig intestine, 8" x 13", 2011, photo: Heather Komus |
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Probe (work in progress), embroidery on pig intestine, variable dimensions, 2011, photo: Heather Komus |
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Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
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"This is a book I am currently working on with sheets of embroidered pig intestine."Untitled, embroidery on pig intestine with snakeskin, variable dimensions, 2012, photo: Heather Komus |