Heidi Bucher makes femininity and modernity manifest

I glanced upon a photograph of Swiss artist Heidi Bucher which seemed recently captured, radiant in youth with a zest for life. It appeared she would grace the opening of her solo exhibit, Heidi Bucher: And Pull Yesterday Into Today. However, at a hosted pre-launch dinner at yet another artist’s family home, the heavens dictated I sat beside and across her two mature sons, Mayo and Indigo — some years younger than me — and soon learned their mother-artist had passed on some 30 years ago.

This blessed encounter awakened a profound interest in the creative lady, so I decided to seriously explore the show at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde.

For starters, Bucher had an upbringing in dressmaking, for which she studied, understood and mastered the human body and its relation to fabric. This manifested as she found her footing in the United States, having established residence with her husband and their children.

From a distance, I gazed at Body Wrappings, which are androgynous wearable foam sculptures, painted with latex and pearl white paint. These interactive pieces — one for adults, and another for children — could be worn. Some Benilde Dance Program students even utilized these for their performances at the opening night.

Bucher returned to Zurich after her divorce, where her art direction further evolved. She began experimentations with liquid latex, as it seemed like skin. To further her interest, she likewise studied and was mentored under the renowned Bauhaus school expert Johannes Itten at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, where her fashion and textile pursuits became the bases of her collages. This training was likewise crucial to the structural support of her “skinnings,” as the dress-like materials retained their shapes and folds without any compromise. Even her choice of textile, which was marginalized in several art schools, is still lauded to this day by other art enthusiasts.

She started her exploration on different approaches to textiles through the smaller-scale The Fish Sleeps (1975) and Apron (1974), as it connected female iconographies. She contrasted it with the minimalist wave of the 1960s and 1970s.

The visionary then set off on what would be considered her most distinct art style — large-scale skinnings. She employed gauze and white liquid latex to cover the entirety of architectural spaces, to imprint its details on a skin-like product. She went through the whole gamut; she skinned her own studio, her ancestral home, and even prisons.

She was exposed to the psychiatric hospital in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, which infamously hosted Anna O. Born Bertha Pappenheim, she was diagnosed with hysteria, a mental disorder which was originally believed only affected women. She was the first case study of the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud.

We marveled at The Parlour Office of Dr. Binswanger (1988), a mummified interior of the same consultation room where Anna O. was treated, with the huge skinning suspended in thin air in the middle of the MCAD. This was Bucher’s opus, as she attempted to liberate the patriarchal structure of the past.

Other pieces of interest are The Water Flows Out of the Pitcher Today (1987), which used latex and wood to emulate the flow of water out of a receptacle. Bucher also had a series of untitled pieces, which used white glue and paint to create miniature sculptures of venues important to her life.

The MCAD showcases a plethora of Bucher’s sketches, drafts, and collages, which later on materialized in large-scale obras.

Finally we could not help but notice Bodyshells, which are structurally similar to the former Body Wrappings, but in more unconventional shapes and designs. Old archival photographs showcased individuals wearing these soft textile dresses over a meadow.

Heidi Bucher: And Pull Yesterday into Today, a selection from the estate of the Swiss artist from 1926 to 1993, is ongoing at MCAD until 18 August.