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Henkel-wallace’s latest project distills themes and ideas already evident in her earlier work. These paintings reflect a quest for re-connection to the land, to the seasons, to the woods and to the animals, a connection that had been integral to Henkel-Wallace’s German childhood. These include the exploration of a core element of any culture: everyday rituals, primarily those concerning food and our relationship to it. Her search is not just specific and personal to her but is embodies a universal human need, as cultural amnesia is universal phenomenon of modern life.
Her large oil paintings depict animals both dead and alive, the animals isolated upon black backgrounds. The animals look straight into your eyes, willing the viewer to see that they are living creatures. For before death we consider them “animals”; after death, “food”. These paintings will the viewer to see the essential qualities that apply to the animal both living and dead, and compel us to reconsider the sterile, plastic-wrapped, objectified “food” in the grocery as more than just a modern artifact.
Growing up close to the land taught Henkel-Wallace that all life is sacred and deserves to be treated respectfully. The village life was intergenerational, and she grew up with her grandmothers and that generation that still lived without refrigeration. Although two world wars discouraged people from looking back in history, a historical connection remained strong as her life remained anchored to the land and its traditions through her grandmother’s generation.
She recalls, as a little girl, waking up very early for the Schlachtetag, a winter day to slaughter the swine. She fondly remembers the hustle and bustle, the smells, and stirring the blood for sausages. She remembers the wooden block decorated with dried blood and the white and brown feathers of the killed chicken. It was her job to hold the head down as her aunt swung the axe.
She says that doves were a special treat; when her grandmother made a soup from one it was a special gift to receive the cooked heart. Every part of the animal was used and celebrated in its own way and with its own rituals.
She is no vegetarian, but has not forgotten that we take life in order to live ourselves. She hopes to connect to the viewer by evoking his own deep knowledge and memory. Though we are all today living in a modern world, I would like to bring back respect toward life and our surroundings.
Henkel-Wallace has been exhibiting her work in solo exhibitions since 2000. Her work is collected internationally and includes many private commissions. She is a member of the German American Artists, and has most recently been featured in the March, 2007 issue of American Art Collector.
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