Above: Tim Hawkinson, courtesy Pace Gallery, Gimbled Klein Basket, 2007.
The University of Tampa’s Scarfone/Hartley Gallery is pleased to present Tim Hawkinson: BodyCon, a solo exhibition, showcasing unique works of variable media from throughout this groundbreaking artist’s career.
The exhibition runs from Oct. 6 – Nov. 3, with an opening reception on Oct. 6 at 8 p.m.
Tim Hawkinson`s idiosyncratic creations are meditations on nature, machines, mortality, the body, and human consciousness. Since the 1980s, the artist has used common found and store-bought materials, handcrafted objects, and machines to shift familiar subject matter off-kilter, constructing visual conundrums and conceits imbued with deeper meaning.
Hawkinson’s inventive works range in size from monumental kinetic and sound-producing sculptures to almost microscopic pieces fabricated from such unassuming materials as fingernail clippings and eggshells. Signature pieces in BodyCon will include Gimbled Klein Basket, a huge gridded bamboo structure, suspended from the ceiling like a Calder mobile and Laocoon, a hanging piece that appears to be a salvaged truck tire painted white, yet is carefully handcrafted from paper, wire, string, foam and rubber.
Driven by ideas, materials, and an interest in transformation, Hawkinson continues to create unlikely and thought-provoking associations by transforming common materials into works of art. A number of Hawkinson’s works in the exhibition use unorthodox methods to explore self-portraiture, including Hangmanofmycircumference, which utilizes dozens of belts wrapped on a wire armature to suggest a full-length standing figure. Objects like a silver quilt featuring a blown-up image of the artist’s footprint sewn into the fabric and a time-lapse photograph of a sunrise made with a digital photo-scanner also investigate the nature of the self in time.
Hawkinson has participated in numerous exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including such important surveys as the Venice Biennale (1999), the Whitney Biennial (2002), and the 2003 Corcoran Biennial in Washington, D.C.
Tim Hawkinson will be in Tampa to oversee exhibit installation details at the Scarfone/Hartley Gallery and will work with a UT class of upper-level sculpture students to produce an artwork based on found materials. The preview for the exhibition will take place on Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. with the artist providing a special tour of the show for Friends of the Gallery members.