Heidi Freihaut: Beds I Have Slept In
Heidi Freihaut
Untitled (Madrid, Spain), January 2012
Courtesy the artist
From its inception in the 19th Century photography has been closely associated with travel and the recording of transient relationships to place. Heidi Freihaut’s Beds I Have Slept In presents a series of colour photographs selected from hundreds made during time spent by the artist in over 60 countries, supplemented by second series of images presented as a slideshow.
The photographs are all of beds the artist has slept in, but the beds are not hers. They embody spaces of transience – hotel rooms she has passed through, spending one night in, perhaps more. Each image acts as a visual prompt for memory. They are evocative of the personal story of the artist – what was happening at the time, how she experienced the culture of that place, who she was with, or who she met, and so on. Equally, in the vast array of décor, furnishings and environments pictured these photographs have the capacity to evoke a range of imaginative associations, even other memories, for each visitor.
Whilst created as documents of place, time and experience, these photographs also draw on the history of the bed in art. Albrecht Dürer’s Pillow Studies drawing of 1493 is important here, the marks and folds left on a pillow indicating the body’s absence. Tracey Emin’s installation My Bed (1998) conveys something similar; the title, however, secures the artist’s ownership – ‘My Bed’.
About the artist
Heidi Freihaut is an artist based on the NSW/VIC border. She is Head Teacher, Art and Media at NSW TAFE, a role which covers Visual Art, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Arts and Design courses across six campuses. Her practice investigates themes such as form and architecture, place vs. space, nomadism and how the body travels in different locations – themes that have been explored firsthand by her travels through over 60 countries. Heidi has been on the board of artist run spaces including Watt Space Gallery, Newcastle, and KINGS ARI, Melbourne. Her work is held in various private and public collections including the University of Newcastle, and Maitland Regional Art Gallery.
