Hearts and scissors exhibit to open

Visual artist Cindy Hinant has located two of life’s most painful nouns right here in Bloomington.

“Lost Love” and “Paper Cuts,” two of Hinant’s most recent exhibitions, will open Friday at the Art Hospital at 102 E. Allen St.

“Lost Love,” the primary piece, will be a collection of black and white hearts by Hinant, and “Paper Cuts,” a collaboration with artist Greg Ajamie, takes the shape of two pairs of oversized scissors made with colorful paper hearts.

“‘Lost Love’ will be an organic, ephemeral shape that encompasses the room and engulfs the viewer,” Hinant said. “‘Paper Cuts’ spills onto the ceiling and refuses to fit in the space. It reflects both violence and affection.”

Will Claytor, Art Hospital treasurer, said he plans to attend the Friday opening. He called Hinant’s work “bright, fun, playful and cute,” but also very detailed and involved.

“It’s pretty deep as well,” Claytor said. “I can honestly say that this show is using the Art Hospital space in a way that no one else has.”

Hinant will arrange hundreds of black and white photocopies of variously sized hearts mounted on foam core – a strong, lightweight backing material – in galaxy-like configurations to create a vast installation that literally invades the viewer’s sight.

“‘Lost Love’ includes both drawings and installation,” Hinant said. “It is influenced in part by the adolescent ritual of doodling or writing a crush’s name over and over again. The black lines refer to drawing, and in some ways I consider the installations to be wall drawings.”

Mark Rice, Art Hospital vice president, said he first saw Hinant’s work at Big Car Gallery in Indianapolis and thought it would be perfect for display at the Art Hospital.

“I really like her work because of its apparent simplicity, as well as its grand scale and repetition of symbols with simple products,” he said.

Hinant said she is eager to install the works at the Art Hospital because of its “energy and history of showing fun, young, contemporary work.”

“Installation art can facilitate a direct, immediate interaction with the viewer,” Hinant said. “I don’t fulfill the romantic stereotype of an artist working alone in the studio. I’m interested in what my art is actually doing when it enters the public sphere and the dialogue it engages with the  audience.”

Rice agreed, praising Hinant for utilizing the gallery’s space while installing her works. The Art Hospital moved to a smaller space down the block from the old building in October 2008.  

“Art Hospital’s old space was huge,” Rice said. “It could and did house some enormous exhibitions and installations. Our new space on Allen Street is about one-fifth of our old space. Cindy’s work is huge, but having to rethink and install to fit a certain space is what the medium is all about.”

In addition to gallery shows, Hinant has permanently displayed work at the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis University Library and at the Indianapolis Herron School of Art and Design, from which she graduated last year.

“When I create a work, I consider the idea first and the medium second,” Hinant said. “I have a real interest in space, whether that is the physical space of the gallery or an illusionary space in a two dimensional work. I think Art Hospital’s audience is one that will appreciate the type of work that I make.”