American artist Roni Horn follows up her 2009-2010 retrospective Roni Horn aka Roni Horn organized jointly by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Tate Modern and currently on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, with the first exhibition in the US devoted solely to her drawings. As large as eight by ten feet, six complex “pigment” drawings from the series called Else are on view for the first time at Hauser and Wirth New York. The power of these works lies not just in their enveloping scale and space but also in Horn’s sensitivity to material and touch and balance between conceptualism and intuition.
Horn began making pigment drawings in the 1980s and shares her ideas and process in the catalogue from her current retrospective. She begins with a series of drawings that she refers to as “plates”. Consider how her word choice of “plates” raises connotations of geology, printing and photography. The plates start as charcoal drawings of spirals, ovals, and squiggles pinned up on a large wall in her NY studio. Powdered pigment dissolved in turpentine is applied by brush to the plates and when the turpentine dries layers of varnish are repeatedly applied to the pigment. Notice as you look at the surface of the drawings that the physical presence of the materials stands out, especially the varying thickness of the red pigment and the contrast between the sheen of the varnish and the matte finish of the paper.
Choosing two or more plates, Horn begins the lengthy process of cutting or disassembling the drawings and then joining them back together to form one new work. An extended period of time from several months to a year is spent composing and repositioning the fragments. You’ll see throughout the surface of the drawing, tiny holes where the separate pieces have been pinned to the wall in the process of assembling this complicated puzzle-like composition. You’ll also see pencil marks where the pieces of paper are joined together. They will either be double line marks or pairs of words, for example in Else 10, you’ll find king, queen, pussy, cuss, fink, moot, drug, dew, dove, and many more.
The appearance of the words reveals Horn’s ongoing involvement with language in her work and her engagement with systems. However, as you try to figure out the logic, consistency, or meaning of the systems of words, lines and sometimes numbers, it alludes and baffles you.
As the gallery press release explains, “these drawings like all of Horn’s photographic and sculptural installations continue the exploration of identity through doubling, repetition, and the paired form.” For Horn, identity is not something fixed but instead it’s mutable and multiple.
Think about the shifting identity of these drawings when viewed from a distance and close-up. From a distance, the drawing offers an active and cohesive image with a uniform surface. Upon closer inspection, the fragmentation of the drawing becomes apparent and the physicality of the materials and varying applications of pigment and varnish assert themselves along with the cuts, pin pricks, pencil marks, and words. As the cohesiveness breaks down, the notations, splices, and holes on the surface also add a more frenetic and fragile note changing the identity or personality of the piece.
With the growing awareness that other drawings have been cut-up and reassembled to form the new drawing, your mind and eye are continually moving between your experience of the image before you and trying to discern the identities of the original drawings. Enjoy the engaging and puzzling tension of the work’s identity as you indulge their strong visual beauty!
Image courtesy of W Magazine.
For more than 30 years, Roni Horn has been creating visually striking and intellectually rigorous work in a variety of media and often exploring in addition to identity, issues of gender, androgyny, and perception. To learn more check out: ART 21
Roni Hon
Hauser & Wirth – 32 East 69th Street
until June 19, 2010