Friday Focus: Angelique Heidler
Angélique Heidler is a French painter born in 1992, she lives and works in Paris. She graduated from the Slade School of Fine Arts, London in 2015. Her intuitive practice questions societies’ issues though its existing imagery and fragments. She aims to highlight the absurd and marginal by collaging her paintings with stereotypes. Her work has been shown in France and internationally, in solo and collectives exhibitions such as : Haus Wien, Ginny on Frederick, Vienna, 2021; Masterless Eye, Yudik One, Brescia, 2021; Your Friends and Neighbors, Hight Art, Paris, 2020; Softview/Privatissime, Neuer Essener Kunstverein, Essen, 2020; Stay Safe, Shivers Only, Chantemanche, 2020; This Tragedy, Fonda, Leipzig, 2020; BAITBALL (01), Palazzo San Guiseppe, Polignano A Mare, 2020; solo presentation, Shivers Only, Material Art Fair, Mexico City, 2020; Heidler Mailaender, Galerie Derouillon, Paris, 2019; On ne sait plus quoi penser du serpent qui a peur, Galerie l’Inlassable, Paris, 2019; Outside Our, Villa Emerige, Paris, 2018; The Unlimited Dream Company, Hannah Barry Gallery, London, 2017; The Dark Ages, Supplement Gallery, London, 2017. She was a resident at Plop (UK, 2019), LaWayaka Current (PA, 2016), Villa Lena (IT, 2016) and is currently starting a residency at Stadtgalerie Bern, CH. She was shortlisted for the 5th edition of the Révélations Emerige award (FR, 2018).
Can you tell me about your practice? How do you get started on a piece of work?
I get started on a series when my eye catches something (in studio or anywhere else) : it can be a piece of fabric, a pattern, a medium, an image. Usually it is a consumable or something that relates to my personal references. When my choice is made, it all builds in my mind; I elaborate some very precise details, I sketch briefly and write what I can’t draw.
It often doesn’t look exactly how I planned but that’s what I enjoy about the process, I open my mind to other ideas —even if they don’t match the initial intention, to better combinations, techniques and most importantly : mistakes. They can become the turning point to a great piece, leading the series to new horizons. I always add what I find in my studio or in my collection of previously gathered elements, that fits the composition : printed images from my data base, bits of fabric, wrapping papers, stickers, all sorts of paint and varnishes, iron-on patches, jewellery, images cut out of books, notes & coins, etc. I keep a lot of postcards, old magazines, plastic figurines, and other objects that I am attracted to, in order recycle them in a future body of work. In short, I plan, but when I start working anything can happen and my intuition drives my process.
Who or what are your biggest influences?
I could go on forever as I can get very passionate for everything but here is a list of artists and things that first come to mind :
Isa Genzken, Michael Krebber, Matisse, Sadie Laska, Pontormo, Marylin Manson, James Blake, Tomi Ungerer, narrow minded people, patriarchy, injustice, Ennio Morricone.
Imagery found across and within society appears symbolic within your work, can you talk a bit about this?
It’s my main medium. The excessiveness of our consumerist society and its complexity are my number one concerns and reflection subjects.
I belive that collectivity and humanism constitute a starting point for my inspiration. As a matter of fact, my practice serves the reflection of a chaotic world where different cultures and opinions collide, swinging from major to more arcane societies’ issues. It feeds from fragments, of mercantilsm mostly, and I find thrilling to highlight its consequences such as objectification, discriminations, ideologies of power, cancel culture, woke culture, marketing’s instrumentalisation, hypocrisy and selling emptyness.
Anything that embodies this captivates me. I guess I create a sort of language of symbols that refer to ideas, history, politics, news facts, etc. in many different, and also sometimes paradoxical ways which opens up to a wider field of interpretation.
Of course there’s also an aesthetic part played by that imagery in the composition, for instance they do a great job stimulating unsure areas of a painting and are a good base for superimpositions.
How important is the choice of material in relation to realizing the concept of your work?
I’m not sure the material realizes the concept. I rarely work with a concept in mind. I’m more driven by a composition of superimpositions of images, colored backgrounds and textures that, once organized, genuinely lead me to a concept to develop in the next works. The choice comes intuitively; it’s the dialogue between all the elements that constructs the content.
What is your most important tool? Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
I guess I couldn’t work without glue and paint.
Can you give us a book recommendation that has been important in your practice? And tell us why it’s important.
King Kong Theory by the French writer Virginie Despentes, really made me integrate the feminist fight. A few years ago I wouldn’t really reflect on patriarchy it as it has always been instinctive for me to make my way through it, but since I’ve read this manifesto, I find it hard letting the slightest injustice pass. Let’s say that I can’t stay silent anymore and that helps my work grow. I didn’t necessarily want to give my paintings a feminist label for fear of falling into a trend but I realized that these values are intrinsic to me and that I’ll never feel complete if I don’t confront them in my work.
Finally, is there anything new coming up that you would like to tell us about?
Yes! I am currently in Bern, Switzerland, for a 2 months residency at Stadtgalerie. https://stadtgalerie.ch/de/institution/#artists-in-residence
I also am currently preparing a solo show at Bad Water TN, USA, opening early October.
https://badwater.gallery/
I will have two pieces in the new Jahresgaben selection of Neuer Essener Kunstverein, Germany
http://neuer-essener-kunstverein.de/jahresgaben
I’ll have a show later this year in my hometown, Ivry sur seine, France and exciting news coming up in the UK and US for 2022!