HEADY
SCULPTURE, 2003-2013
NOLA AVIENNE (US)
In 2002, Nola Avienne fell through a trapdoor. A head injury, spinal injury, broken sacrum, broken ribs - parts, both solid and ephemeral, were broken or lost. Avienne’s body healed faster than her psyche. One day, she picked up some yarn and began to crochet a new spine. When she finished the spine, she began to crochet herself a new skull. Avienne wanted to knit herself back together. If the reparative material was soft then the representational object couldn’t be damaged. She would be safe... protected.
The white head, ‘Medella’, incorporates teeth made of resin that dentists used for bridges around fifty years ago, along with a few fresh water pearls. Bits of text curl from under the gum line. The artist lost three teeth as a result of the accident. As each head emerged, the healing shifted from the physical to the psychological. Each developed a character derived from the personal objects, childhood artifacts, notes, spoken words, things that needed to be released or sacrificed and stuffed into these soft icons.
In the green head, ‘Bowman’, the artist stuffed into it all of her socks because she felt she wasn’t getting anywhere; it was time to change direction. Nola frequently wears flowers in her hair. The flowers collected over a year were stuffed there together with the socks. It’s important to remember you walk with beauty, too. Warm and sparkly, winsome, charmingly vacant, searches for the right words, but rarely finds them. They all possess secret abilities. ‘Nox’, the dark one, is a nightmare converter. Nola also crocheted a new brain, but all it does is rattle a little.
BIO:
Nola Avienne chooses materials that evoke a visceral response, suggesting seduction, repulsion, fragility or protection. Her studio practice has developed progressively through the negotiation of the tensions between art and science, chaos and order, humor and discomfort. With a B.F.A. from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design and a M.F.A. from the University of Washington she has shown in the US for over twenty years. A recipient of the 4Culture Individual Artist Project Grant and the Artist Trust Grants for Artists Programme Grant, her work is included in the Washington State Art Collection and King County Public Art Collection.