Heather Gordon

One Love Response

“Personally, I think artists seek to tell a story of the human condition through their work, and it makes sense to attempt to bring representative stories from all parts of that human experience. Balance is critical otherwise we’re not telling the full story.” —Heather Gordon

Revealed here for the first time, Heather Gordon's design for One Love Response was inspired by the mural created by Phillip Marsh on Greensboro’s North Davie Street after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the resulting protests in downtown Greensboro. Marsh painted One Love with the help of numerous local artists as a part of the City of Greensboro’s new Street Mural Program

Gordon’s tape design will resemble an abstract map based on a system that translates words and numbers into origami “folding patterns.” Gordon’s approach was influenced by her study of the work of Erik Demaine of MIT who wrote the textbook, Geometric Folding Algorithms. Though math and geometry have excited Gordon since she was a child, she views language as the true basis of her work: “Every piece I've made so far has been around language rather than numbers (I do convert the text to numbers though). I haven't found any numbers I believe are fully reliable, for various reasons. But language has been most revealing, and I've found a pathway through letters rather than numbers as a result of this shared experience.”

The map for the phrase “One Love” was produced using the ASCII (computer code) values for the seven letters in "ONE LOVE". By echoing the message of reconciliation of Bob Marley, who as Marsh notes “is a universal hero for so many," Gordon’s work will create opportunities for continuing the dialog around the role of public art in raising awareness and inspiring social change.

One Love Response is the first in a series of site-specific works Gordon is creating for GreenHill as part of its SHIFT HAPPENS initiative. Gordon will install the nine-foot-high, site-specific mural on the central exterior window of GreenHill, facing North Davie Street. The exhibition and related programs are designed to migrate between physical and virtual platforms, furthering conversations on how contemporary art will be seen, experienced, and received in the coming year. Additional SHIFT HAPPENS installations are expected in the Fall and after Winter Show in 2021.

Watch for Heather Gordon and Phillip Marsh in a public discussion of their One Love projects on Zoom, October 20, 2020, 12:30-1:30 PM.

Heather Gordon is the daughter of an accountant and logistician. She lives and works in Knightdale, NC. Her recent installation work titled Cinnabar was included in the exhibition You Are Here: Light, Color and Sound Experiences at the North Carolina Museum of Art. In addition, collaborative projects with choreographer Justin Tornow include Penumbra as part of Gordon’s exhibition at CAM Raleigh titled And Then the Sun Swallowed Me; Echo at 21C; and SHOW at The Durham Fruit. Gordon's public art projects include Resting Place at ArtPrize7, UNLESS at the Rubenstein Art Center at Duke University, Steel at The Dillon in downtown Raleigh, Chrysalis at Duke's Art Annex, Thunderhead at the Ackland Art Museum, and Elements at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. In 2014, Gordon received a North Carolina Artist Fellowship. She has has been a full-time artist since 2015.

GreenHill’s SHIFT HAPPENS exhibition series is made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of Jane and Richard Levy and Founding Members of the Women’s Gateway Circle.

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www.heather-gordon.com