Heloisa Escudero
DysFUNctional Beauty

March 24 - April 22, 2023

Inkjet print video collage mounted on wood with magnet holder.

Artist Statement

Dysfunctional Beauty is a project where I take what the world sees as wrong and ugly and transform it into art videos/prints that display their beauty. These videos and prints were made with images that are scary, mundane, and that remind me of the dysfunctional world I live in.  It is a statement on my desire for a healthy state of mind, where I take all that is negative and bring them back to the positive side so I can live another day.  The videos are as much about a positive and healthy state of mind as they aim to de-stigmatize my mental health issues.  How I make these videos is a conceptual decision to emphasize the dysfunctionality in the world. I misuse several applications to create my images.  Most photo/video applications are used to correct images and/or make them functional. I use them to distort images and remove pixels/information in order to abstract the original imagery until the audience cannot tell what is on the screen.  They are meant to be seen as organized chaos and beauty without any concrete information on what the viewer is seeing

This body of artwork speaks to a human condition that affects everyone's life.  All of us in one form or another have experienced mental health issues in our lives.  The key is to apply a positive outlook to all the dysfunctionalities that society wrongfully stigmatizes. The videos aim to show how we can transform all hurdles with the knowledge that we contain beauty within ourselves, and with this beauty we make this world better. The videos aim to de-stigmatize my mental health issues, by taking the chaos and disorder of my dyslexic mind and show them in a positive light. Some of my mental health issues are looked upon by others as merely an abstract thought. My videos/prints are composed to purposefully withhold information from the viewer, and this intentional decision to withhold knowledge aims to mimic how people see mental health issues in others. The organized chaos and beauty devoid of any concrete information is to open a window for the viewer into the mind of a suffering person, and to experience how people see mental health issues in others.

— Heloisa Escudero

Biography

Heloisa Escudero grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, relocating to the United States in 1987 where her interest in Fine Arts developed. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and a Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute. She holds American, Italian and Brazilian citizenships.

When not in her studio making art she is working at the Hirshhorn Museum as an Exhibit Specialist, and is Curator at the Betty Kramer Gallery and Visarts as a Gallery Specialist.  Escudero has been showing in the DC area, New York city and Boston regularly. In the Fall of 2017 she completed an Artists Residency at Montgomery College in Silver Spring, MD. In January 2018 Heloisa began a four months Bresler Artist Residency at Visart, culminating in a solo show.  Escudero’s many solo exhibitions include MOCA Arlington (Arlington-VA), Object Center Gallery (Boston-MA), The New Gallery at NOVA Woodbridge Campus (Woodbridge-VA), Sweden at the Uppsala Art Museum and in Spain at the University of Valencia and many more.  Her art was mentioned in such publications as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Resource Magazine, and Harvard University Archive.

Website: heloisaescudero.com