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PRESS RELEASE
Helen Altman
Home Again
February 20 through April 3 , 2004
Dunn and Brown Contemporary is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Helen Altman. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Friday, February 20, 2004 from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. The exhibition will continue through Saturday, April 3, 2004.
Home Again consists of four unforgettable “altered appliances” completed in the early to mid-1990's — an ironing board, a freezer, a water fountain and a refrigerator. Most often seen in museum exhibitions, these groundbreaking works highlight Altman’s interest in these often discarded vintage pieces. The series champions the secret lives of appliances, the items they house, and their alternate functions; creating a personal fiction for each piece. All allude to the absent human user, and Altman successfully illuminates the cyclical nature of these inanimate objects.
Minus a man or woman to use it, Weeping Iron is condemned to an eternity amidst the same mountainous pile of wrinkled garments. The iron “weeps” at the insurmountable task at hand. Exhibited only once before, the iron is actually a working fountain. Altman reworked the interior mechanisms of an iron adding a water pump to create the desired effect. Placed in an empty clothes basket, the iron’s “tears” drain back to it’s source, and the water recycles through the system.
Phoenix features a turkey thawing comfortably in another salvaged appliance — a vintage refrigerator with a dreamy 1950's turquoise interior. Unlike the freezer and the iron, the refrigerator is not in working order. The turkey thaws all day and is returned to a working freezer in the evening to freeze again. This process inadvertently creates a life cycle for the turkey. As the exhibition goes on, the turkey ages from a gorgeous healthy pink to a less appetizing shade of gray.
In Snowhead from 1992, a dismembered snowman’s head stays frosty cool in a freezer replete with a viewing window and constant lighting. The freezer itself, salvaged from a second-hand furniture store, inspired Altman to create the snowman’s head. She then added the window for uninterrupted viewing. The snowman goes through a cycle of his own. Although his eyes of coal and carrot nose remain fixed, he requires the occasional snow application to keep fresh.
Altman's major feat is the complete anthropomorphization of these everyday objects. The strength of each piece alone is a testament to Altman’s creative abilities and her mechanical skills. The opportunity to view the group as a whole is a rare delight.
Helen Altman's work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California; the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX among others. Altman presently lives and works in Fort Worth,Texas.