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Hilda Shen
Whether Hilda Shen’s work centers around Manhattan’s urban skies, geological vastness, the idiosyncrasies of Chinese scholar rocks, or the waters of Maine, Shen’s imagery flows between monumental and sensual landscapes, between the enormity of the human footprint and the desire to feel simply at ease with our perceived and hidden surroundings.
Shen works with simple materials, such as paper, glue, ink, Xeroxes, and even rubber stamps. She layers these materials with careful attention and historical sensitivity: from her wall installations to sculptures, paintings, and prints, Shen creates both dynamic and contemplative pieces and reflects her desire to explore how layers of human touch and intention have been interleaved into the natural world.
Shen shifts the content of her work towards her New York City habitat and the idea of landscape as a point of self-reflection in Sky Climb and the more recent piece, SkySquare. Meticulously built-up surfaces, constructed of torn, heavy paper often seeped through with ink and then encased and hardened in beeswax, suggest either light imprints of human touch or bruises deeply embedded.
Most recently, Shen has adapted her artistic values to printmaking. Following a fellowship with the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in 2008, she began experimenting with imparting her physical presence into monotypes. Each print is consumed by what seem to be tick marks of a well-sharpened pencil, swirls of ink, and swabs of erasure. Instead, the ink is moved and removed by Shen’s own palms, fingers, fingernails, and elbows as she uses them to apply patterns and pressure, create tonality and evoke intimacy.
Shen continues to make work that delves into the understanding of how she experiences moving through nature, space, and time—how memories are accrued and how history is perceived—and by extension, seeks to make visible what is only intermittently detectable.
