Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects is pleased to present new work by Mathilde ter Heijne in our main exhibition space. In her videos and sculptures, ter Heijne uses her own persona to test the social and historical territory that determines the role of the artist. Her videos and sculptures usually feature only one character: a copy of the artist in the form of a professionally made special effects dummy fashioned to look exactly like the artist. This Doppelgaenger is often shown in situations of emotional distress where extreme behavior reveals mechanisms of socialization that are normally hidden under normative codes of convention. Ter Heijne often juxtaposes the explosive content of her work with an exceptionally rational formal approach. What may appear as an infatuation with her self turns out to be a precisely calculated exposure of universal social norms.

On view in the exhibition will be a single channel video starring the artist in a double role as a rich and a poor woman. The film is based on Hollywood’s “women’s movies”, a genre that became popular among a mainly female audience in the depression era. Intended as a moral example in a fast changing society, this genre often featured two opposite female roles: how women could or maybe would like to be and how they were supposed to be. Usually, the poor (ugly, married, serving) woman was proposed as the preferable role over the rich (beautiful, independent, career-oriented, unmarried) one.

The film will be accompanied by a special effects dummy, singing a song by the folk hero Sara Ogan Gunning (1910-1983) who wrote about the problems of poverty and starvation in the coal mines of Appalachia.

Mathilde ter Heijne’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at the Kunstverein Hannover, Germany, at Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Karlsruheat the Migros Museum fuer Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, the Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, and at Arndt & Partner Gallery, Berlin. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at K 21, Duesseldorf, at the ZKM, Karlsruhe, at GrandArts, Kansas City; at the California Museum of Photography, Riverside; Neue Galerie Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz; Kunstverein Hamburg; Kunstverein Hannover; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Museum Abteiberg, Moenchengladbach; Bonnenfantenmuseum, Maastricht; Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven; Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem; and Stedeleijk Museum, Amsterdam. Her work is included in the collections of the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, and the Cisneros Collection Miami, FL. She is currently included in “Talking Pictures – Theatralität in zeitgenössischen Film – und Videoarbeiten”, at the K21, Duesseldorf, and in “Made in Germany” at the Sprengel Museum, Hannover. This is her second solo exhibition at the gallery.

Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects is located at 5795 West Washington Blvd in Culver City, between Fairfax and La Cienega. Gallery Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am – 6 pm and by appointment. Directions: Coming from downtown, take the 10 frwy west, exit at the Washington / Fairfax exit, turn left, it’s the second building on your right. 10 frwy coming from the west side, take the Fairfax exit, turn right on Fairfax, turn immediately right on Washington Blvd, the building is the second on your right, next to the Dunn Edwards store.