Bridge/Serpentine Path - 160 x 22 x 4/36" - Carved Oak - 2017
Benjamin Heller is a photographer and cross disciplinary Benjamin Heller is a cross disciplinary artist based in New York. Drawing from a diverse background and training in photography, sculpture, dance, and physical improvisation, his works are rooted in the movement of the body and the creation of intimate environments that can be entered, opening a space for discovery via the body, senses, and the imagination. His projects focus on the conflict and unity that can be found in the space between the hold of opposing forces, such as inside and outside, emergence and disappearance, rest and awakening. By engaging his body directly with materials that are often organic, such as wood, stone, reed or found within his local environment, he creates sensitizing structures that afford physical conversations between the natural dynamics of the material and a new experience for the body. These performative sculptures can then be expanded by performance or met by others. His photography, video and sculptural performance works have been shown at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Brooklyn Museum, Wave Hill, New York Live Arts, ICP International Center of Photography, Robin Rice Gallery, IDIO Gallery, La Mama, Hazan Projects, Fresh Window Gallery, Eyebeam, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Honey Space Gallery in New York. In 2013 he was selected for the Bronx Museum AIM residency program and Biennial Exhibition. He has created immersive site-specific Installations “Spines Alluvial” carved into quarry blocks at the Marble House Project in Dorset VT, “The Vital Contour of U+US” a commissioned permanent installation in New Orleans, and a commissioned interactive installation “Inverted Constellation” as a visiting artist at the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania AU. Collaborative dance and sculpture projects include The Blind Men and the Elephant with choreographer Julie Bour at New York Live Arts. “A Place of Sun” with Company Stefanie Batten Bland performed in Paris and New York, and“Welcome”, at La Mama in New York City.
