Heidi Bucher

The Swiss avant-garde artist Heidi Bucher was primarily known for her iconic "mouldings", which delved into architecture and the human form through sculptural work. Her transformative creations focus on subjects such as private spaces and personal belongings, architectural elements from the 19th century, feminism, domesticity, and individual or collective memory. She married Carl Bucher in 1960 and pursued their shared vision of an "artist's family" until they separated in the 1970s'. Bucher and her husband formed a close friendship with Pop Art artist Ed Kienholz in Los Angeles. This friendship inspired Bucher to use mother-of-pearl pigment in her large-scale monochrome paintings with the spray technique. After returning to Switzerland in the early 1970s, she began her most notable works, casting objects and architectural elements in latex. Bucher's works are commended for their meticulous attention to form and the dissection of objects, focusing on pre-existing shapes found in structures like floors and staircases. Through a process she referred to as “skinning”, the artist used textiles and latex to peel away the "skin" of these architectural bodies and capture their essence without replicating their physical form. At first glance, Bucher's work may seem like a dark representation of the world around us. Still, she views her images as dynamic and in motion, with latex as a crucial expression of her commitment to curiosity.