"FIRE & EARTH"
How does a traditional 2-dimensional painter create the illusion of walking around in multi-dimensional space? She builds and meticulously hand-paints, 3-dimensional models.
The Nohra Haime Gallery will exhibit eight of my model stage sets and book sculptures alongside several of my short animated films June 5th through July 6th. Enter my favorite childhood stories through intricately lit dioramas and tunnel book structures. Work their mechanisms, and see how my films are created.
Valerie Hird works across diverse media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, animation installation, and performance. Highly crafted and deeply imaginative, her practice is activated through travel and collaboration. Her work considers the history of narrative, cultural mythologies, analog technologies, and craft forms to create a charged symbol-based artwork uniquely her own.
The multi-sensory works by visual artist Valerie Hird include intricately layered book forms and automata using two-way mirrors, crank-operated sculptures, and hand-drawn animations accompanied by original soundtracks. To help realize the creative vision for her projects, Hird collaborates with composers, ‘cranky’ engineers, stage lighting designers, naturalists, and tattoo artists. Each work is a process of slow, skilled, passionate handcraft.
