Kasten, Perlmutterhaut

Heidi Bucher

ca. 1973–76 · Natural rubber, open weaved fabric, glaze, and mother-of-pearl pigments · Modern and Contemporary Art

Bucher’s sculptural works on fabric supports often address the relationship between the body, domestic interiors, and gender. Once noting that "rooms are shells; rooms are skin," she used latex-covered material to make bandage-like casts of the surfaces, crevices, recesses, and patterns of walls, windows, and, as seen here, cabinets. Bucher’s process-driven technique links her to other artists of the 1970s, including Gordon Matta-Clark, Robert Overby, and Eva Hesse, as well as anticipates the practice of contemporary artists such as Doris Salcedo. By creating these physical tracings, Bucher draws attention to the sensorial persistence of specific places that are impressed in our memories long after we have vacated them.

Artist

Heidi Bucher

Date

ca. 1973–76

Medium

Natural rubber, open weaved fabric, glaze, and mother-of-pearl pigments

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky Fund, 2014