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Heidi Kumao: Real and Imagined

Fabric Works and Video Animations

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When

September 15 – December 4, 2020

Where

Hybrid Event

Stamps Gallery
201 South Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Map/Directions
Hours/Access

Details

Exhibition
Open to the public
Free of charge
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Stamps Gallery is pleased to present Real and Imagined: Fabric Works and Video Animations, a solo exhibition of narrative fabric works and experimental animations by Stamps Professor Heidi Kumao.

Using fabric cutouts and machine and hand stitching on industrial felt, Kumao gives physical form to the intangible dynamics underlying ordinary conversations and relationships from a feminist perspective. Intentionally minimal, each image distills an interaction, traumatic incident, or power imbalance into an accessible visual narrative. Recognizable objects such as chairs, roots, ladders, or spotlights set the stage for the story to unfold. Events are captured midstream, suspended in time like a felt film still.

The exhibition is inspired, in part, by the courage, testimony, and experiences of women (like Christine Blasey Ford) who publicly report assault, harassment, or misconduct. The #MeToo movement gave voice to thousands of women to tell their personal stories, but also exposed a hostile backlash meant to silence them. The title, ​“Real and Imagined,” is a deliberate contradiction; if one is true, the other must not be. In practice, however, both terms are used to reference a woman’s testimony and determine how it is publicly interpreted. Her account is accepted as truthful by many and simultaneously dismissed as imaginary by the court of public opinion: ​“her memory is wrong,” ​“she imagined it.”

The works in ​“Real and Imagined: Fabric Works and Video Animations” make difficult conversations and relationships tangible by stripping them down to their essentials.

Wordless physical gestures highlight the psychological and emotional forces at play behind even the smallest of interactions.

Biography

Heidi Kumao has created award-winning experimental films, video installations, cinema machines, electronic clothing, and kinetic sculptures. She has exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally including shows at Art Science Museum Singapore, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona), and Museu da Imagem e do Som (São Paulo). She has received fellowships from the Creative Capital Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is a professor at the Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan.

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Stamps Gallery

201 South Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Map/Directions

Hours
  • Sunday: Closed
  • Monday: Closed
  • Tuesday: Closed
  • Wednesday: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Thursday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
  • Friday: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Saturday: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Closed for installation; reopens Friday, February 9, 2024.