Biography

Photo Credit Kent Butler

Heidi Bender b.1982

Heidi Bender explores the relationship of personal identity and larger societal power constructs through art interventions and installations rooted in daily life.  Bender’s work is most often found in public areas within the pedestrian sphere, where she uses her body as a means of displacing and revealing common notions of spatial designation.  Heidi received an MFA from the Ohio University in 2009, and a BA from Hope College in 2004.  She has performed in cities across the United States including Arlington, TX, Park City, UT, Colorado Springs, CO, and Las Vegas, Nevada among others, as well as the Huembes Folkloric Market in Managua, Nicaragua.  She has also worked with the artist collaboratives SPURSE onCrooked River Songlines and Entangled Citizens projects, as well as the ASPECT collective, Invisible Inc., and the Trickster project with Duane McDiarmid.  Heidi lives in Chillicothe, OH with her husband, Dan Kauffman and teaches at Shawnee State University and The Ohio University Zanesville.