Statement

My practice challenges and reclaims stereotypes of Chinese women and their sexuality by interrogating fetishism fuelled by the gaze. Supplemented by an investigation into diasporic culture. Oil paintings and organic matter sculpture- rooted in identity, help redefine visions of postcolonialism through the confrontation of victimization with an unwavering stare - defiant and unafraid.
 
The history of cross-cultural trade of ceramics, globalization, and appropriation of Western powers have caused an influx in obsession of the chinoiserie. Simultaneously migrants from these same cultures leave their homelands and build new diasporic futures in unfamiliar lands. Working with the translation of porcelain patterns, food produce/products in connection with the body. Imitating memorialized designs hold a rich cultural history and organic objects that represent bodies and hold imprints on distorted diasporas.
 
My work shamelessly excretes an intimate, vulnerable, and grotesque depiction of loss through sexuality and beauty, alongside the porcelain organic produce. Our bodies remain resilient, but have been transformed by the violence and effects of colonialism, withering with each generation to come, and depleting itself back into our colonial landfill.

Bio

Claire Heidinger (she/her) is a Tkaronto-based Chinese-Canadian visual artist with a BFA from OCAD University, specializing in Drawing and Painting, and Art History. Investigating a visual fetishism created by the gaze, she creates large-scale oil paintings rooted in figuration and experiments with food produce in expanded painting. Claire’s practice is dependent on heavy research, motivated by diasporic sentimentality, identity, and accessibility. She is currently investigating diasporic hybrid cultures with the historical transposition of media in ceramics and painting to depict a loss of culture and history in migrant bodies. Claire has been awarded by the Ontario Council of Arts for emerging artists (2022) and is the co-founder of Common Collective Arts.

CV

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