Heather B. Swann has established a formidable reputation as a maker of sculptural objects, ink drawings, and paintings of dark, sensual, and fantastic presence.
'The Forests of Symbols' is an ambitious new project conceived as the first in a final series to be completed during her lifetime. It brings together newly commissioned and rarely seen works in sculpture, painting, and drawing.
The project’s title is itself a metaphor for a way of knowing the world; indeed, it describes a method. With the senses wide open to symbolism and allegory in the limitless phenomena that surround us, The Forests of Symbols is a reminder that it is our separate and collective human inventions that create our cultural memory. Every little thing could be symbolic.
“'The Forests of Symbols' is an umbrella for what I have made and what I will make. My work is situated deep inside my nervous system, and I see the world ‘feelingly’. Floating around in a metaphorical forest of symbols searching for the pathos in things, I am a leaf in the wind, a daydreamer. There are too many meanings to make sense in here; the day breaks and the night falls, someone is shooting the breeze, and I hear a faint line singing that this whole wide world is longing for beauty.” Heather B. Swann
'The Forests of Symbols' is presented as part of Copyright Agency Partnerships, an annual commissioning series supporting mid-career and established visual artists to develop and present a major new body of work.
Acknowledgement
'The Forests of Symbols' is presented as part of Copyright Agency Partnerships.
Images
Heather B. Swann, Selene 2025. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and STATION, Naarm/Melbourne and Gadigal Nura/Sydney. © Heather B. Swann. Photo: Jack Bett