Pre-Occupied

Abstract

Pre-Occupied Jeanne Heifetz (bio) In the Pre-Occupied series, I challenged myself to confront something that terrifies me. I have had death panics since I was eight years old. Ironically, the only real estate I am ever likely to own is a parcel of eight cemetery plots I inherited from my grandfather. The deed to the plots came with a map of the cemetery, which seemed like the logical place to begin to address my fear. Each drawing in this series is based on the map of a different Jewish cemetery, including the ones where my own relatives are buried. (I am not religious, but the historical and familial connection was important: these are all places I could be buried, even though I remain completely unreconciled to the idea of my own death.) I can’t claim that drawing the maps allays my panic. Death remains entirely unknowable terrain: the map can never be the territory. And yet, stripped of identifying text, the cemeteries’ abstract forms are mysteriously compelling, grounding me in the universal human drive to create beauty, order, and ritual in the face of our own mortality. ________ Pre-Occupied is an ongoing series begun in 2016, currently comprising 138 individual works. The drawings are burnished graphite on handmade paper. Portions of the series have been included in group shows at Drive-By Projects, Watertown, MA; Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT; Odetta Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Lehman College Gallery, Bronx, NY; Patchogue Arts Center, Patchogue, NY; The Tobacco Factory, Long Island City, NY; 404 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; BergenPAC Gallery, Englewood, NJ; and in a solo show at the Lobby Gallery of the 14th Street Y in New York City. The full series can be viewed at www.jeanneheifetz.com/pre-occupied. The following is a selection of four images from the series. [End Page 45] Click for larger view View full resolution Pre-Occupied 59. [End Page 46] Click for larger view View full resolution Pre-Occupied 64. [End Page 47] Click for larger view View full resolution Pre-Occupied 90. [End Page 48] Click for larger view View full resolution Pre-Occupied 103. [End Page 50] Jeanne Heifetz Jeanne Heifetz came to visual art by a circuitous route. She has two degrees in English (Harvard AB; NYU MA), spent a year as the writer-in-residence at Exeter, worked at Esquire and American Heritage magazines, and wrote a book on organic food (HarperCollins) and one on the origin of color names (Henry Holt). Heifetz also had a parallel career as a weaver, exhibiting at venues like the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show and the Smithsonian Craft Show. In 2007, she started applying fiber techniques to nontraditional materials; by 2011, her work had shifted entirely from fine craft to fine art. Since then, she has shown in galleries and museums in seventeen states, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, and Israel. Her work is in the Drawing Center’s curated registry and the flat files of the Kentler International Drawing Space. She has curated shows at Schema Projects and the Workshop Gallery in Brooklyn and at the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art. A fellow at LABA: A Laboratory for Jewish Culture in 2018–19, Heifetz lives and works in Brooklyn. Copyright © 2021 Purdue University