One painting, “Tafelrunde: Wässerung,” depicts an eclectic crowd gathered around a table. The group includes a girl, an old man, an anthropomorphic caterpillar, a dog and a robot – all seated. Joining them is an upright fish
Served in a glass, it looks more like a guest than a meal. A doorbell is fixed to the frame. “This desk situation comes up many times in my work,” Heck said. “I always like to gather people around a table and host dinner parties for friends where we can discuss things.”
At the age of nineteen, Heck began to study painting. It was a fairly traditional experience, she said, moving from still lifes to life drawings. In her junior year at art school, she reasoned that she couldn’t draw everything she imagined. With this in mind, she began making costumes for performances. She also took up photography. All these different disciplines come together in her practice, allowing her to never become too isolated in her work. “Painting is very solitary,” she said. For example, with a movie, she can work with friends in a collaborative way. “This is so exciting,” she said, sitting down. “It balances out feelings of loneliness.”
Heck’s friends were also often the models in her paintings. At least the models were all people she knew. “It might take me two months to paint, but I want to make sure I don’t paint a jerk,” she said bluntly.
The model selection process is different every time. Sometimes she was so fascinated by certain people that she would particularly want to draw them. Other times, she has an idea and considers who would be the best person for the role. “It’s almost like casting for a movie,” she said.
Film is another aspect of Heck’s work. “Everything is autobiographical or very relevant to my life,” she says of her films. She’ll have ideas for scenes in her head, and maybe some dialogue. “I love that it’s mostly improvisation. I rely on my actors to help me,” she said. Heck and her collaborators would work quickly, sometimes in a week or less to make the film. “We were all together, living in my house, cooking together, shooting scenes together,” she said. “It was very intense.”
Her approach to filmmaking is a practical one. “If you don’t have everything planned out, then you need to talk about things. And, it’s the same process as my painting,” she said. “Everything you do throughout your day—what you cook, which bird appears on your patio—could play a role in a painting, a film, or whatever work you’re creating. It’s important to me that we go through this together.”
Painting can take up to two months and I want to make sure I don’t paint a jerk. “
Heck, he doesn’t use Instagram. She said she “didn’t like the phone and computer stuff.” Plus, the gallery she works with does a great job with social events. “I don’t feel the need to show myself because they’re doing it for me. I’m so happy that they do it and do it so well,” she said. For example, Tim Van Laere took a photo with her and posted it. “It’s fun for me. It would be weird to perform something on Instagram. I’d rather create the work first and then have someone else post it. I’m not very interested in showing myself off. I think that would put pressure on me.”
Heck works every day, adding that her schedule is more organized now that she has a daughter. She often listens to audiobooks in the studio. Language also has an influence on her work, especially since Heck is a German living in Belgium. “If you move to another country, your language gets stuck the moment you leave your home country, so I would probably be speaking in 90s German,” she explains. “I didn’t follow the evolution of language. It was something precious, but it also became something you could play with because language no longer had rules. I loved creating new combinations of words and playing with language and doing some detective work with language.”
An important part of her daily regimen is taking a nap after lunch. “I have a bed in my studio,” she said. “I call it going to my office.”
It’s a necessary break to help her regain her creativity in the middle of the day. “I’m also a firm believer that when you take a nap – or sleep or dream or whatever – you get ideas or new ideas. I always hope that when I wake up and see a painting the problem is solved, but of course, that’s not the case,” she said. Furthermore, she added, “I do believe that sometimes you have to stare. Sometimes, you have to be bored.”
There is also a spontaneity to the way and content of Heck’s creations, which leaves her future artistic possibilities open. “I don’t know where I’m going. It’s natural. It flows,” she said, adding that she’d like to continue working with fabric and maybe dye it herself in the process. “I like things that have lived a while, maybe the fabric must have been hanging out in my garden with some bird poop on it or something,” she laughs. “It has to live with me for a while, and then it becomes more exciting for me.”*
This article first appeared in Issue 54 of “High Fructose”, which has been sold out. Support our work and get the latest issue with your print subscription here!
