Heather Steckler
Portfolio
Exhibitions
Heather Steckler is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Iowa City, IA.
Portfolio
Exhibitions
Heather Steckler is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Iowa City, IA.
Defenestration
MFA Exhibition, Eve Drewelowe Gallery, University of Iowa, March 1-7th, 2026Defenestration is a public reckoning with inherited stories that I must choose to preserve or throw away. Using photo-based printing processes in tandem with handmade paper and textile substrates, I create collages that deconstruct and rearrange copies of my family’s archival materials. This practice offers new opportunities to search for evidence: of prior misinterpretation, of missed symptoms. My interventions mimic the fragmentation and distortion inherent to memory retrieval. Often reaching a point of abstraction or illegibility, I am practicing destruction to prepare for the eventual loss of these memories.
Material exploration guides my practice. Pressing physical memories into surfaces and enclosing them between translucent layers of pulp and cloth, I weigh competing instincts. Do I keep the past close through touch and daily use or archive it safely out of reach? Commemorating a lineage of scrapbooking and domestic craft traditions, I ask what it means to keep, to revisit, to alter, or to forget.
With this work, I draw a connection between analog memory-keeping practices and the way societal expectations have been passed down through my matrilineal line. Through cutting, stitching, and handwritten notations, I question whether these preservation practices serve as acts of healing or perpetuate cycles of emotional attachment and loss. Ultimately, as the end of this family line, it is up to me what to continue and what to let go.
More Photos coming soon!