Picking up a pencil and drawing was as natural to me as breathing and eating as a child. I drew endless figures, people doing what people do, because they fascinated me, and still do.

When I studied Fine Art at Reading University in the 70s, abstraction was the dominant art form. Under its influence I began to move from figurative to non-figurative work based on the implied extensions and movements of objects in space. This repeated movement between the figurative and the non-figurative is evident throughout my work.

The small-scale figures, initially self-portraits, made between 1997 and 2012 "avoid the anecdotal because the intuitively coordinated actions, captured in facial expressions, have no obvious meaning. In other words, the meaning is left open. Something is happening, but what is happening may change course in one direction or another, may dissolve. It is as if the group dynamics, together with the individual characters, must be understood as a process of self-discovery within the collective setting, as a transfer of this identification of the self into the collective setting". (Dr Jean-Christophe Ammann, catalogue text 'Heather Allen')

While the figures are active in the world in ways that we recognise, albeit sometimes ambiguously, the sculptures and paintings that have been coming out of the studio since 2013 have their roots in the subconscious. I let the shapes, forms and lines emerge intuitively, the decisions made are more visceral than intellectual. I don't know what the end result will be until I reach the point of 'this is it'. Hence the title of the latest series: 'Neo-Geo ...', a 'new geography' of the subconscious.

Whether it's the human body or shapes and forms, the work is always about movement, shifting perspective, breaking barriers and discovery; finding a way forward to a deeper understanding of self. "The immediate sensory event becomes the mediating medium of non-verbal knowledge, the sensory experience becomes the foundation of knowledge and understanding". (Prof. Dirk van der Meulen)

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Artworks by Heather Allen

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