Stavanger, Norway
Heidi Uldal’s Upright series consists of four women, represented using paint and thread on large pieces of fabric. Properly speaking, they are not really women but archetypes, stand-ins for concepts that Uldal indicates with carefully chosen titles, names that help identify ideas in a multicultural world where not everyone understands symbols alike. “Dancing Queen” is the simplest, a gracefully fluid figure who moves like a line drawing in gentle gold and pink. “The Futurist,” aglow with a promising golden aura, stands sideways, giving a sense of always moving forward, following the trio of grey lines that run through her head at eye-level. “Pride” smiles warmly, confident but contained, outlined in friendly red yarn and topped with a colorful afro. The rainbow background from which she emerges connects personal with collective pride, as expressed by the international movement for gay rights. “Rag Doll — Still Standing, Standing Still” is the odd one of the bunch, the one who does not declare what she is or what she needs, depending on the viewer to perceive in her unraveling mess of zigzag stitches, her detached feet, her tangled hair and skewed face, how much care and repair she desperately requires. One hopes, profoundly, that she receives it.
—Lori Waxman, March 17, 6:03 PM