Portrait of Donna Huanca
Paint-splattered canvases, tattered garments, ambiguous steel objects, wax, hair, and even coffee grounds — these are just a few of the many materials that Donna Huanca incorporates into her kaleidoscopic installations. And yet, says the American-born, Berlinbased artist, the process always begins with people. “When I was in high school I would take acid with anyone I wanted to get to know,” says Huanca, whose pigment-covered models appear, like members of the clergy in a psychedelic healing ritual, at the center of her built environments. This month, her “traveling gang” of mostly fellow artists and musicians will arrive in Denmark for Huanca’s ambitious exhibition at Copenhagen Contemporary, a museum housed in a former ship hangar.
