Emma Mortensen’s Sculpture Selected for Heckscher Exhibition

Junior Emma Mortensen’s intriguing sculpture, “Built from What Remains” is among 84 pieces of art chosen for display in 30th annual Long Island’s Best Young Artists exhibition at the Heckscher Museum of Art this spring.

Ms. Mortensen is joining six other Huntington High School student-artists who will be displaying their work. Among all Long Island high schools, only Hicksville is able to match Huntington’s total of seven artists with work picked for the highly regarded show.

Ms. Mortensen is studying with Huntington art teacher Ayallah Jeddah. Each of the 84 artists included in the exhibition has penned statements that accompany their work on display. Ms. Mortensen’s statement is below.

Artist’s Statement by Emma Mortensen

My sculpture, Built from What Remains, is inspired by Esphyr Slobodkina’s A Gioso and her use of found objects to create an abstract, figure-like form. Slobodkina transforms industrial materials into a unified structure that suggests movement and emotion, and her approach influenced how I constructed my piece and communicated meaning through assemblage.

While A Gioso has a playful rhythm, Built from What Remains addresses the destruction caused by war and its impact on children. I used found objects that could be discovered in a home affected by conflict, including broken hardware, metal fragments, and damaged household materials. These objects represent loss, instability, and the disruption of everyday life.

The sculpture takes on the form of a child, built from sharp edges, exposed wires, and uneven layers. The visible construction and imbalance reflect vulnerability and uncertainty, emphasizing how children are shaped by environments of violence beyond their control. By leaving the materials raw and visibly worn, I wanted the damage to remain present rather than hidden.

Based on Slobodkina’s use of abstraction, I avoided realistic detail and focused instead on form, texture, and balance to communicate emotion. Through this process, I transformed discarded remnants into a symbol of resilience, showing how children endure and adapt even when surrounded by destruction.