Divergent processes catalogue

Karima Heredia by June Higgins Karima Heredia’s mural overwhelms the visual senses with its large scale and challenging material. The shiny aluminum foil, a common household item, is treated with varying textures: crumpled for the background, and flat, folded or diamond-patterned for the figures. The figures are life-sized depictions of her classmates, created by tracing their shadow as they struck a pose while being brightly lit. The head of each is the animal that each person chose to be identified with.

This work continues Heredia’s interest in the subconscious; the “shadow” self as she puts it. These figures are no longer shadows, they are the opposite; brought blazingly into the light of day, almost too bright to be viewed. The foil acts as a reflective surface, metaphorically and literally, making the viewer part of the work as they see their own distorted reflection, causing them to consider what shadow-self lives within.

Of Mexican descent, Heredia is following a tradition of mural-making.

Brightly coloured Mexican murals show people doing different types of activity: working, marching, celebrating, or struggling. It is interesting to contrast Heredia’s mural with these. She used no colour other than that reflected, and the activity of her figures is unclear. Are they together by plan or by chance? One of the underpinnings of Mexican murals following the revolution was that art should be public and affordable. In this same tradition, Heredia deliberately uses a material that has very little cost.

I am reminded of the figures in Matisse’s La Danse, a small group of naked dancers holding hands, dancing with vigor and energy in a circle.

In Heredia’s work, the gleaming figures are caught in a moment as if in a camera’s flash; some standing still and others moving. The energy is provided by the demanding material, glaring and shimmering in the light.

There is no depth, no perspective, only form and texture unveiling the interior workings of the inner mind.

Heredia has previously explored this theme in her collaged creatures and paintings. Recalling the characters of Alice in Wonderland, each had a distinct personality: nervous, threatening, or diffident; provoking feelings of incredulity and caution. At times, their narrative was confrontational.

Made of bits and pieces, they seem ready to enter the gallery space or