Mercedes Helnwein was born in Vienna, Austria, daughter to renowned painter and art provocateur Gottfried Heinwein. With a deep fascination developing early on in her childhood for both the visual arts as well literature, she began to dedicate her time equally among the two.
Helnweins recent drawings form a series “Whistling Past the Graveyard”. It is an American idiom, and means pretty much just that: whistling while walking past a graveyard. Faking a cheerful front. Trying to smother some fear.
Mercedes Helnwein explains the series;
“For some reason this idiom made sense in relation to my new body of work. It just seemed to fit. Judging by their expressions I’d say there’s probably something the girls in these drawings would rather not talk about – something they’d prefer to sit on. And they’re keeping it in, but it’s kind of leaking out of their faces.
In any case, I realize there’s a lot of toys going on in this series and with that comes a sense of something innocent, frivolous and child-like. I do think there is something innocent there, but as I said, I still have a hunch that the general train of thoughts in the girls’ heads are going in the opposite direction.
Heinwein is less interested in narrating and more interested in presenting an image that will crank up other people’s imagination and hopefully send it somewhere really weird.
