Fish Factory

Julia Hechtman is a visual artist who lives and works in Boston, USA. Julia makes works focusing on the balance of absence and presence, life and death, and real-time and memoried experience in her multi-faceted studio practice. The natural world features prominently in her works, which has allowed her to travel extensively and to contemplate the familiar in new ways. In 2019, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Reykjavik at Lístaháskolí Íslands, where she pursued her research into the roles of landscape and memory in identity production. In 2024, she will be going to Svalbard on a two-week residency on a tall ship.

Julia stayed with us in the month of August 2023, while she continued her project “Not Once,” a series of videos based on stories told by local icelanders regarding specific locations of significance. Julia travelled between fjords and interviewed locals who were willing to share their stories and memories from the past. At midday, she wandered along the beaches and docks, accompanied by Tumi, looking for and filming jellyfish. That’s how the project “Apparitions” came to life.

Julia also worked in our ceramics workshop, sculpting birds out of clay. “Spirit Birds,” they’re called, and they were an inspiration for fellow artist Gabriele Glang’s ceramis birds.

Julia also travelled to Reykjavik, where she had an audio-visual exhibition of her project.

Visit Julia’s website for more of her work: https://www.juliahechtman.com/

https://vimeo.com/juliahechtman

Thanks, Julia! :)