Eva Hesse's Studiowork

伊娃·黑塞的工作室作品

• 批准号: AH/F004923/1
• 负责人: Briony Fer
• 金额: $ 2.94万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FF004923%2F1
• 关键词: Eva; Hesse; Studiowork

Alongside her large-scale sculpture, the American artist Eva Hesse produced a large number of small, experimental works in a wide range of materials including latex, wire-mesh, sculp-metal, cheesecloth, masking tape and wax. These small works have often been called 'test-pieces' on the assumption that they were technical experiments, especially with non-art materials like latex which Hesse began to use from 1967 on. However, although a few were 'test-pieces' in this narrow sense, most were not. They have been cate]gorsed in this way because they do not fit any other established category. although they are intimately tied to her drawing activity, they are not synonymous with it. So, if they are not technical experiments and they are not merely preparatory investigations for her larger work, what are they? This is what I shall try to answer, not by fetishising them as 'sculpture' in the accepted sense, nor by attempting to link them up, object by object, to the larger work. Instead, by renaming these multifarious objects 'studiowork' I intend to examine them as part of Hesse's exploratory project to dismantle conventional ideas of sculpture. Rather than marginal, as they have been traditionally cast, I see the studiowork as a central part of this project. Precisely because these objects fall below the threshold of what we normally think of as sculpture, they provide the hinge for thinking about the radical undoing of categories that Hesse was engaged. It is an unfortunate fact that because the test-pieces were illustrated in a photograph in Artforum alongside excerpts from her personal writings after her untimely death in 1970, they have been cast as the mawkish reflection of the tragedy of the artist's life. My research could not oppose this biographical approach more strongly. It is not the biography that this research is concerned with but the way the kind of 'ruination' of the sculptural object that matters here dwells not in the melodrama of a life cut short but the generative, productive impulse that the studiowork embodies. Though many of the obejcts may have been left in the studio after the artist's death, they are about an ongoing project. They are about the intense physical involvement an artist has with her materials - evident in the processes of threading, folding, layering, cutting, stapling or wrapping. In a sense, these small things are the most bodily and sensual things that Hesse ever made, as well as the most experimental, and this project seeks a way to decsribe and think about them in a way that does not return them to the conventional categories that thery so blatently defy. Whilst some of the studiowork was left in the studio after Hesse died - including many things that have never been seen or exhibited - some were given by the artist to her friends. When she gave some to Sol LeWitt he famously collected them in a glass pastry case reminsiscent of one of Oldenburg's pastry cases for his papier mache food. Liking the idea, Hesse made some others and exhibited one at her gallery in New York. In this way the studiowork 'leaks out' into the public forum, and further exacerbates confusions over its status. There exist four of these glass cases filled with objects (all of which we intend to show in the exhibition which will be one of the outcomes of this research). In the cases, each shelf represents what I call a 'thingscape', a little landscape of an astonishing range of bodily shapes and materials, often as visceral as they are miniature. The recycling of these small things in the context of the cases suggests the constant re-use and salvage of remaindered studio debris, its constant re-animation. The status of the studiowork is remarkably precarious, and begs many important questions not only about Hesse's own practice as an artist, but also makes us reflect on what happens to sculpture at this pivotal historical moment in the mid-to late 60s, the fall-out from which is still being felt today.

除了她的大型雕塑，美国艺术家伊娃黑森生产了大量的小，实验性的作品，在广泛的材料，包括乳胶，金属丝网，雕塑金属，粗棉布，胶带和蜡。这些小作品通常被称为“试验品”，假设它们被认为是技术实验，特别是黑森从1967年开始使用的乳胶等非艺术材料。然而，尽管有一些是狭义上的“试验品”，但大多数不是。他们之所以被这样分类，是因为他们不适合任何其他既定的类别。虽然它们与她的绘画活动密切相关，但它们并不是绘画活动的同义词。2那么，如果它们不是技术实验，也不仅仅是她更大作品的前期研究，那么它们是什么？这就是我将试图回答的问题，不是通过把它们当作公认意义上的“雕塑”来崇拜，也不是通过试图把它们一个接一个地与更大的作品联系起来。相反，通过将这些五花八门的物体重新命名为“工作室”，我打算将它们作为黑森探索性项目的一部分进行研究，以拆除传统的雕塑观念。而不是边缘，因为他们一直是传统的演员，我认为工作室作为这个项目的核心部分。正是因为这些物体低于我们通常认为的雕塑的门槛，它们为思考黑森所从事的范畴的根本毁灭提供了枢纽。不幸的是，由于这些试件在1970年她英年早逝后，在《艺术论坛》的一张照片中与她个人作品的摘录一起被展示出来，它们被视为艺术家一生悲剧的令人伤感的反映。我的研究不能更强烈地反对这种传记方法。这项研究关注的不是传记，而是雕塑对象的那种“毁灭”在这里的方式，而不是生活缩短的情节剧，而是工作所体现的生成性，生产性的冲动。虽然许多展品可能是在艺术家去世后留在工作室的，但它们是关于一个正在进行的项目。它们是关于艺术家与她的材料的强烈的身体参与-在穿线，折叠，分层，切割，装订或包装的过程中很明显。从某种意义上说，这些小东西是黑森有史以来最具身体和感官的东西，也是最具实验性的东西，这个项目寻求一种方法来描述和思考它们，以一种不把它们退回到他们公然蔑视的传统类别的方式。虽然黑森去世后，一些工作室的作品被留在了工作室--包括许多从未见过或展出过的东西--但有些是这位艺术家送给她的朋友的。当她把一些给索尔·勒维特时，他著名地把它们收集在一个玻璃糕点盒里，这是奥尔登堡的一个糕点盒，用来装他的纸糊食物。喜欢这个想法，黑森做了一些其他的，并展出了一个在她的画廊在纽约。通过这种方式，工作室的工作“泄漏”到公共论坛，并进一步加剧了对其地位的混乱。有四个这样的玻璃柜装满了物品（我们打算在展览中展示所有这些物品，这将是这项研究的成果之一）。在这些箱子里，每一个架子都代表着我所说的“事物景观”，一个由各种各样的身体形状和材料组成的小景观，它们往往像微缩模型一样发自内心。这些小东西在案例中的回收利用表明了对废弃工作室碎片的不断再利用和打捞，以及它不断的复活。工作室的地位是非常不稳定的，并回避了许多重要的问题，不仅关于黑森自己的实践作为一个艺术家，但也使我们反思发生了什么雕塑在这个关键的历史时刻，在60年代中后期，其余波今天仍然可以感受到。