Heather Rubinstein
My work signals its history from the material properties
of fabrics—what happens when the fabrics are subjected to
various procedures: cutting, folding, sewing, staining, dyeing,
and brushwork. For my purposes, domestic fabrics such
as bedsheets or drapes (always sourced from thrift stores)
work better than traditional canvas. I like their porousness
and flexibility as well as their status as recycled, repurposed
products. My paintings are informed by postwar European
abstraction (Alberto Burri, Supports/Surfaces, Sigmar Polke)
and the Pattern & Decoration movement, but I try to avoid
citation. I think I work like a phenomenologist. Consciousness
is “intentional,” that is, directed toward concepts, thoughts,
ideas, images from a certain perspective. My certain perspective
is that of painting in all its states, not as an object but as our
experience of that object.