Artist talk by Heather Peak
Visiting professor Heather Peak will talk about their social practice in sculpture.
Do you work with people?
In social sculpture we work with individuals and communities. We talk together. We talk as a group. We question everything. We hold each other’s hands. Together we see the unseen. We are brave. We act like artists.
These conceptual, but actual, sculptural forms create a new type of space for people to step into. Our job is to hold that space open. HOLD, HOLD, HOLD… It is a space for new ways of thinking and doing.
We map and draw these social sculptures and their places, people, geography, history, politics, ecologies.
We name these invisible systems of trust, collaboration, co-creation, energy, support, care, kindnesses, resilience, creativity, friendships, symbiosis, community, brains (human and non-human). We must recognize the work that goes into building, maintaining and holding them. The tendrils of these new social sculptures flow outwards through society. We see them connecting with others, propagating. We think about how they may create a structural social architecture of their own. That supports society. That will reshape it.
Heather Peak is a visiting professor in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts alongside Ivan Morison. Together they make sculpture and social sculptures.
Do you work with people?
In social sculpture we work with individuals and communities. We talk together. We talk as a group. We question everything. We hold each other’s hands. Together we see the unseen. We are brave. We act like artists.
These conceptual, but actual, sculptural forms create a new type of space for people to step into. Our job is to hold that space open. HOLD, HOLD, HOLD… It is a space for new ways of thinking and doing.
We map and draw these social sculptures and their places, people, geography, history, politics, ecologies.
We name these invisible systems of trust, collaboration, co-creation, energy, support, care, kindnesses, resilience, creativity, friendships, symbiosis, community, brains (human and non-human). We must recognize the work that goes into building, maintaining and holding them. The tendrils of these new social sculptures flow outwards through society. We see them connecting with others, propagating. We think about how they may create a structural social architecture of their own. That supports society. That will reshape it.
Heather Peak is a visiting professor in sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts alongside Ivan Morison. Together they make sculpture and social sculptures.