Coping Mechanisms

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Heather Leier, “Guise I,” 2019

screenprint, foam confetti and Ikea Ribba frames, 9” x 9” each (image courtesy of the artist)

What would social encounters look like if we could magically peer into people’s inner lives, past the cheery façade of perpetual success that most of us project?

Calgary-based artist Heather Leier’s prints suggest some answers. Her show, Coping Mechanisms, on view at the SNAP Gallery in Edmonton until April 27, is intensely honest, even courageous. It lifts the mask of perennial happiness and exposes what it’s like to endure sexual and gender-based violence.

While the show is based on Leier’s personal experiences of trauma, this is not tell-all sensationalized work. Intimate yet understated, it offers the appearance of good cheer, much like the social norms she addresses.

At first glance, her prints are filled with celebratory paraphernalia such as ribbons, streamers and balloons. It takes careful observation to discover the emotionally gripping subtexts amidst those festive objects.

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Heather Leier, “There was a Party Going on Downstairs,” 2019

photopolymer, screenprint and embossment, 16” x 10 ” x 72” (image courtesy of the artist)

For example, one of the nine prints in the Young Lady portfolio depicts pink crinkle paper. It hangs from the top of the composition as if tossed in a fervent moment while unwrapping a gift. At the print’s bottom edge, barely visible text in a white font reads: “it was the only thing I could do.”

Similarly, in the mixed-media series Guise, colourful foam confetti enclosed within box frames almost completely conceals four underlying words: inconsequential, feelings, forget, trust.

Such emotionally potent words can reverberate in our minds after traumatic events. At the same time, life goes on. Groceries must be bought, errands run and a veneer of normalcy cultivated. The people we encounter, even close friends, may never suspect the disturbing inner monologues that loop through our heads.

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Heather Leier, installation view of “Coping Mechanisms” showing “Regulated Allusions,” 2019

inkjet print, chine-collé, screenprint, acrylic gel and six cradled panels, 30” x 40” x 1” each (on the floor) and “Young Lady,” 2018, inkjet, chine-collé, screenprint and overprint varnish, nine prints, 14” x 18” each (images courtesy of the artist)

At such times, gazing downward – like an invisible shield it discourages casual conversation – can be a coping strategy. Leier’s work repeatedly alludes to this gesture.

For instance, the floor installation Regulated Allusions is derived from a photograph she took on a particularly hard day while walking through downtown Winnipeg.

“While looking down, I noticed an immense area of purple petals that had fallen from a nearby tree,” she says. “Amongst them, a single shiny gold Twix wrapper emerged. It jumped out at me as something absolutely stunning.”

Leier, an art professor at the University of Calgary, found many of the festive but discarded objects depicted in the show while gazing at the ground. The items she scavenged can be seen as forlorn echoes of childhood joys. But they are also hopeful, evoking a future, perhaps only a breath away, free from the effects of trauma.

In this gentle and poetic way, Leier’s intensely private work points to troubling social realities. Few of us have the patient attention needed to detect subtle signs of distress in our friends. We certainly can’t hear the inner monologues behind their smiling faces, whether in face-to-face encounters or when mediated by social media.

This show invites us to look more closely. Perhaps a compassionate glance will help lift the burden, so people experiencing trauma can stop hiding and look up with ease. ■

Coping Mechanisms is on view at the SNAP Gallery in Edmonton from March 22 to April 27, 2019.