As an artist, HEYDT draws inspiration from the historical use of the term "diorama" to create an imagined reality that transports the viewer to another place and time. In the series Artificial Stage, HEYDT creates boxed assemblages that extract inexplicable poetry from arrangements of humble objects and images. By combining the formal austerity of Constructivism with the lively fantasy of Surrealism, the artist creates simple shadow boxes, fronted with a glass pane, in which eclectic fragments of photographs and Victorian bric-a-brac are arranged. These fictionalized creations offer an enclosed concoction that panders to our voyeuristic inhibitions and our insatiable enthrallment with fake realities and modern embrace of sanitized, packaged nature.
For HEYDT, these works are intended with sincerity and irony in equal parts, allowing the past to make itself vividly present. Many of the works in the series are conceived as direct tributes to actresses and ballerinas, both living and dead, who were the subjects of the artist's intense, inevitably unrequited crushes. HEYDT creates poetry from the commonplace but differs in her fascination with fragments of once beautiful and precious objects found on frequent trips to the bookshops and thrift stores of New York.
Somewhere in the city of New York, there are four or five still-unknown objects that belong together. Once together, they'll make a work of art. To submit to chance is to reveal the self and its obsessions. Artificial Stage is an exploration of the inexplicable poetry of boxed assemblages created from found objects. It is a nod to the past while simultaneously commenting on the modern embrace of sanitized, packaged nature. Through this series, HEYDT invites viewers to explore their voyeuristic inhibitions and their insatiable enthrallment with fake realities.
