Lauren Heckler is a recent graduate of the Fine Art: Critical Practice BA at the University of Brighton. This is a course that encourages its students to create work beyond the confines of the gallery. Much of Heckler’s work has, indeed, been exhibited in the public sphere. As part of the exhibition Art Fare her work Playful Diversions, saw photographs of acrobats responding to bus architecture installed on the Brighton and Hove active buses. Another element of this work incorporated performing passengers waving from the upper level of a double decker at unsuspecting passers-by on the streets below. Further examples of alternative spaces in which she has exhibited include London underground car parks, a vintners and a public garden.
In 2013, Heckler won a place on a study exchange to Japan, where she lived and worked for four months. Here, she made multiple works and exhibited several times. She was selected to make a video work in collaboration with a sound artist for the Sound Screen Digital event that took place in the Brighton Dome as part of the 2012 Brighton Digital Festival. Heckler has also conducted several residencies including one at Brighton’s Booth Museum of Natural History and at the YMCA Fred Emery Court, a block of flats where homeless people are re-housed within a supportive environment.
Acting in a site-responsive way, Heckler is fascinated by the discovery of the local; conversation and research is key in the accumulation of her ideas. As such, the tools for the production of her work vary from video camera to camping gear. Her work is playful and often concerned with the conventions of human interaction, the joyousness of interpersonal activity and the desire for reciprocation.
Connecting Creativity AiR 2014