FRIDERIKE HEUER

POLINA OLSEN PHOTOGRAPH

Heuer’s art arose from cancer encounter

A Jewish response to critical challenge

By POLINA OLSEN

article created on: 2008-12-01T00:00:00

Photographer Friderike Heuer hopes her upcoming exhibit reaches beyond visual art. Some photos tell stories from her favorite books. Then, a method for maintaining joy helped her greatly during a bout with cancer. She hopes her photos illustrate that method and show others the way.

“Surveying the Human Condition” runs Dec. 6 and 7 at the Fire and Earth Art Center in Southeast Portland. Heuer, who works at the Oregon Jewish Museum, teamed up with sculptor Petra Brambrink for the two-day show.

“I didn’t do any art whatsoever before I got ill,” said Heuer, who has previously exhibited with ORA: Northwest Jewish Artists. A former psychology professor at Lewis & Clark College, she gave up her job when diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003.

When she missed the intellectual stimulation, she began drawing pictures based on both knowledge and emotion. And, she found the Jewish community offered help and inspiration.

“Rabbi (Daniel) Isaak (of Congregation Neveh Shalom) would visit and always confirm that when you’re Jewish you’re not allowed to pray for the removal of an affliction—if it’s given, it’s given,” she said. “But you are allowed to pray to figure out how to deal with it. It was a call to action—learn how to handle the burden.”

That teaching guided Heuer as she recovered and started work at the Oregon Jewish Museum. Here, she discovered her medium: photography. Armed with the inexpensive point-and-shoot camera that she still uses, she roamed Old Town and the Pearl District after work.

“I would see my reflection in windows and always think something cancer related,” she said.

“For example, I would see a big yellow container and I’d say—there’s an urn. I thought, I’m going to make a series that depicts cancer from diagnosis to survival so people can relate to what is involved. Then, I’ll use these images to show them how to interpret the contents in a positive way rather than within the illness-based schema.”

The yellow container in her photograph now looked like a beautiful vase.

One photograph titled “The Search for the Perfect Hat” shows Heuer looking through a store window at a mannequin with a flowered headdress.

“It talks about the situation when you’re bald,” she said referring to the side effects of chemotherapy. “Every hat that looks good is uncomfortable and every one that feels good looks horrible. At the same time, spring will come; you will grow your hair again. Stuff renews just like in nature.”

When Heuer finished photographing the cancer series, she turned to her Jewish book club for inspiration. Now using photomontage, each piece represented a different book.

“You have to think when you look at them,” she said as she pointed out a piece based on “The Human Condition” by Hannah Arendt. It depicts Arendt’s face overlaid with a window.

“It’s a marching order toward not succumbing, not being passive, not letting things happen, not conforming. She’s still watching us, wistfully, looking whether we are following the marching order.”

Today, Heuer is working on a photomontage series based on poetry by Polish national Zbigniew Herbert. Just back from visiting her son in Krakow, she looks forward to the upcoming exhibit.

“I have something to tell in both series,” she said. “I would like people to come see the work. And, if just one person walks out of there and says, ‘that’s a book I have to read,’ I’ll be happy.”

See Surveying the Human Condition at the Fire and Earth Arts Center, 2502 SE Division St., on Saturday, Dec. 6, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 7, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For more information visit www.friderikeheuer.com or www.petrabrambrink.com.