Artist Statement:

“The place in me that was formed long ago by impressions made in a world that was punctuated by the screams and bizarre incantations of a schizophrenic brother is the place where my art is born. At any moment, a peaceful family dinner could be interrupted by an unexplained fit in which the dining table could be overturned and the meal sent flying in all directions.

I could escape from this to my own room where I made things.  I could turn discarded materials, like the cardboard sheets that came inside my father’s shirts when they were returned from the cleaners, telephone wire, pipe cleaners and fabric scraps, and broken and discarded things, into magical objects. The process of making took me away from what frightened me, and that I could not understand. The objects brought me praise and pleasure. The objects most often represented humans as dolls and figures with houses and castles in which they would live. They would ride around the gray linoleum floor in cars and other contraptions.

Even in those childhood years, the making of art had its serious side. My father, a self-educated and successful commercial artist, though not extremely communicative, did share with me his own fascination with the art world. The shelves in our dining room were filled with the most beautiful art books. I had taken a particular interest in the book published by MOMA on fifty years of the art of Picasso. I went heavily into Cubism, collaging fabric and newspaper into my crayon drawings, and proudly titling one of these works A Picasso. I was rewarded for all this with a trip to the Museum of Modern Art to see the Picasso Retrospective. Standing before both versions of the Three Musicians in all their colorful brilliance, I was completely lost and entirely amazed. That day in the Museum, in my patent leather Mary Janes and new dress, proud to be my father’s daughter, was the grandest moment of my young life.

As a student of the assemblage artist, George Herms, I developed a sensitivity to found objects. They emphasize the usefulness and beauty of things and people which are seen as discardable by many. Unlike George, I alter what I find in order to produce integrated, organic pieces that might be seen as representations, beings, or systems in themselves.

I looked at the casual way in which Herms assembled his pieces, often loosely bound together with steel tie wire, if attached at all, as an invitation to abandon any striving for craftsmanly technique that I might have harboured. Clean, precise work, though not beyond my ability, does not always fit with my aesthetic notions or my style of living and approach to life and are me. I do not want the construction techniques to distract and dazzle viewers or to interfere with my ability to put things together in surprising and uncompromising ways.

The joints, the oozing glue, the wood fillers and excess solder, tangled string or wire and weld material are in my work to give life to the objects I make. They are to call attention to the haphazard and unpredictable nature of life, the necessity to continually be reconstructing ourselves in order to survive modern life.

My current work is still centered around the female form. I have had many issues with my own body, having lived in it, hated it, given birth, danced in it…it is what I know best in this world.  In this work, I break apart the body and reassemble it, deconstructing common movements into single poses and representing the one as many. The construction is exposed, incorporating objects that are juxtaposed with the figure to conjure association and metaphor.

My work begins as intuitive visualizations and, through the processes of manipulating materials, becomes articulated into meaning. My desire is to create art which challenges the viewer’s notions of beauty, provokes unsettling emotion, and contributes to changing cultural attitudes.”

Jeanmarie Simpson: Your artist statement seems so comprehensive — has anything in your work or perspective changed since you posted it on your website?

Hadiya Finley: My statement is a basic description of the influences that underlie my art-making process; I think it still holds true.  I went to Graduate School in 2000-2002, already in my 50s.  Maybe late to start a professional career as an artist, but my life is fairly stable and I have a good sense of who I am.

JS: Your statement challenges me — does it challenge you at all? Do you ever refer to it to give you a self-inflicted nudge?

HF: I refer to my statement when I need to talk about my work.  The actual art-making is driven by images, objects, and dreams that I encounter. Ideas come quickly. But producing the work takes time and often progresses intuitively, taking many twists and turns and often arriving at dead ends.  Turning the mental images into tangible form involves a lot of trial and error, and pieces are worked out and developed in the process.  I often discover what I am trying to say in the process.

JS: Has your work proved therapeutic to you? Having grown up in a household with a brother who was troubled and whose illness necessarily created a violent atmosphere, it seems that your work emerged first as comfort to you. Does that hold true today?

HF: I don’t think that my art-making emerged as a form of comfort in a trying atmosphere.  I would have been doing art no matter what.  I always wanted to draw, paint, and to make things.  I remember painting at an easel for the first time when I was three.  As a child, I had many opportunities to make art and received recognition, which was important.  When I became absorbed in making things and responding to challenges of manipulating materials, it allowed me to escape what was an unpleasant situation. This was a helpful biproduct and, in that way, it might have been therapeutic. I think that the closeness to my brother’s illness and to other people with similar illnesses has given me a particular  perspective on the human condition — that is seeing brokenness, deformity, disturbed behavior as more common than unique.  I think this finds its way into my art.  I actually like it when people are uncomfortable with my pieces. But then I also use humor as a way to engage.

JS: What are you working on now?

HF: I generally have several projects going at once.  I am working on a new series of figures about four feet.  These are acrobats that will relate to one another.  I am getting ready to go to China for three months in December.  Since my son married a Chinese woman and moved there in 2004, I have been going there and doing art over there. I have access to a bronze foundry, so I am planning to do some small bronze figures.  Going to China is always an adventure.  I meet new people and will take advantage of whatever opportunities arise.  There are possibilities of doing clay work, making larger pieces using molds, and learning new painting techniques.