Tim Hawkinson's Mid-career Retrospective
Tim Hawkinson’s mid-career retrospective at the Whitney is daunting in its thematic variation. Through the show he elaborating on himself. His own body is the starting point for transformation or translation, the inevitable elapse of time, and the meticulous measuring and documenting of the banal and everyday. Every piece is referential either to Hawkinson or to itself. His work never hides the way in which it is made and the materials do not seem substantial enough to perform their tasks, yet they do. Like the piece, “Spin Sink (1rev./100years), 1995” where the texture of corduroy is turned into the teeth of gears. By minimally being altered, these household materials retain their integrity. The potential this reveals reaches beyond Hawkinson’s work to all unappreciated junk we surround ourselves with. His mechanical appropriations are extensions that faithfully reproduce aspects of himself, like the signing of his name in “Signature, 1993” or the changing facial expressions in “Emoter, 2002”.
However, he seems to lose all of his magic when he works with traditional materials i.e. drawing and painting. It is as if he is trying to represent what his other work actually shows you.
A unique aspect of Hawkinson’s curatorship are the footnotes under each piece that tell you not only the materials, but how the object was made or what the mechanical components do. These footnotes are how Hawkinson talks to his audience. When his body is involved the particular order of operations is described. “I stood in front of a full legnth mirror, nose to nose, and sculpted my reflection to the glass.” It is fun to watch faces react when reading these details; they are now in on his secret joke. Others were opposed to reading. While a lot of contemporary art suffers from being rather inaccessible, this show thrived on its accessibility. Anyone, artist or not, can come and understand if not appreciate this work. I left this show, my imagination churning, if aluminum foil could be made into elephant skin, anything seems possible.
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