Heidi Wenyon
Visual artist
Current work
SMALL HISTORIES
Welcome to the new, extended edition of Small Histories.
In Small Histories, Heidi has elevated a small everyday object, the button, to reveal it as a symbol of our shared human experience. Inspired by collections she has admired in ethnographic museums, Heidi has unlocked the button's narrative potential, creating a series of portraits whose rich colours and attention to detail emulate some of the characteristics of the Old Masters.
The thirty-three button portraits and their stories span a number of universal themes, from motherhood and friendship to conflict and grief. The stories appear in this catalogue alongside the portraits: poignant, funny, and intensely personal.
Click the image to view the catalogue
Note on the Foreword to the catalogue
When, in the early, still experimental, days of the project, the first nine paintings were completed, they were accompanied by a catalogue that included a mischievous Foreword by the fictitious Felicity Knäppchen (literal translation.: 'Happy Buttons') of the equally fictitious Global Button Foundation. Unfamiliar at that stage of the project with the international community of button experts and collectors (amateur and professional), Heidi's aim was to draw attention to the surprising depth of meaning that can be extracted from a seemingly humble artefact.
C. Joy Journeay, VP of the US National Button Society and a genuine button connoisseur and aficionado, has kindly written a Foreword to the new, extended edition of Small Histories. In it she recognises and celebrates the enduring power of the button to trigger memories and emotions.
