"BOUNDARIES" Nicole Havekost  Threshold Arts, Rochester, MN.
Channel: MSA eXperimental
Date: 2022-10-01

"BOUNDARIES" Nicole Havekost  Threshold Arts, Rochester, MN.

Rochester artist Nicole Havekost presents Boundaries, an exhibition of mixed media fiber work and charcoal drawings exploring the artist's experience of her aging body.

ARTIST STATEMENT

At age 52, I no longer fit in the spaces I previously constructed to contain myself. I bulge, stretch and droop. I scab over and scar. My bones creak and muscles falter. These changes happen over years, so slowly that they are almost imperceptible. 

The women in my family live to be 100. (Is this too long or not long enough?) I wonder at their patience and perseverance. My great-grandmother had a daily writing practice until she was 96. My mother, at 79, finds purpose digging in the dirt and growing things. I hope to share in their same grace and giftedness. 

My skin is changing, there are textures and colors I don’t recognize, but it is not yet thin and delicate like my mother’s. She teeters when she walks but she is strong and stubborn. Her grip is weak and still she carries so much. She is aged and yet she is not. 

I see time coming for me in much the same way. This art marks my process for learning to live the same way. 

What are the Boundaries that define my time, my work, my body, my ability, my life?


Nicole Havekost is a fiscal year 2022 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

Cover image: Sheath, 2022. Mixed media wall installation using wool felt, beeswax, soft pastel, oil pastel, black volcanic sea salt, shellac.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Nicole Havekost (b. 1970) is an artist living in Rochester, Minnesota. Her first museum exhibition “Chthonic” was presented as part of the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in November, 2020. Havekost has exhibited extensively throughout the United States in both solo and group exhibitions. She is a 2020, 2018 and 2013 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant recipient. She is a long-time educator, teaching at St. Mary’s University, Winona State University and Rochester Community and Technical College in Minnesota as well as small liberal arts colleges in Southeast Michigan. She is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Printmaking. She also earned her MFA in Printmaking at the University of New Mexico. Havekost did not realize she was a sculptor, and now considers herself a recovering printmaker.