Watchtower, 1995
Hinges, Screws, 54" x 18" x 9"
Tracy Heneberger was born in New London, Connecticut in 1954, grew up in Brazil, and earned his B.A. in 1978 from New York University. His sculpture and drawing have been shown extensively in the U.S. as well as Norway and China. After 1996, his work shifted towards organic abstraction and reflected an increasing consideration of fragments in relation to larger forms. He was fascinated by the humble yet wondrous design of commercial, mass-produced hardware. A corrugated nail or copper banding becomes the repeated building blocks within the restrictions of a rigorous geometry. Deeply poetic and richly textured, the finished works belie their industrial origins and their labor-intensive creation. Often they were inspired by poetry and autobiography. Watchtower, for example, is loosely drawn on the stooped figure of an elderly man that the artist could see from his studio window, while evoking a fortress or a lookout. Heneberger experimented with single casting during foundries residencies in China, especially the ability of molten metal to unify an object while preserving characteristics of individual elements. The Japanese concept of wabi, or the beauty of subtle imperfections, pulses through these works, sometimes the results of change, and at others, of choices made during the process. Here as elsewhere, a sense of life and grace emanates from their idiosyncratic forms. Heneberger died February 28, 2015.
*Excerpted from Tools as Art: the Hechinger Collection, published by International Arts & Artists. Edited to reflect the artist’s passing