Thomas Hirschhorn interview with Hans Ulrich Orbist, Thomas Boutoux ed., Hans Ulrich Orbist: Interviews volume1, Milan: Charta, 2003, pp.393-400.
Thomas Hirschhorn is an artist who was born in Bern, Switzerland. After training as a graphic designer he moved to Paris and joined a communist graphic design collective. He soon quit being a designer and became a contemporary artist. In this text he is interviewed by Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.
In this Interview Hirschhorn discusses his opinions on catalogue essays, he talks about how “A catalogue is often intended to legitimize or revalorize the artwork.”(.1) Hirschhorn rejects this approach, he says that, “A catalogue should inform, create knowledge, and discuss connections and contexts. It should provide space to raise questions, not try to convince me of the work’s validity, and above all it should not attempt to intimidate with its size and sytle.”(.2)
Hirschhorn’s approach acknowledges that printed matter can be considered a site for art exhibition which has different possibilities, restrictions and vernaculars than a gallery space and so offers up the chance for an artist to expand on what has been said in the gallery. They can add to the work or use parallel images and text to open up the meanings of what has been presented in the gallery, or the text/printed matter can operate as a work in it’s own right.
This year three well known New Zealand artist’s presented large shows simultaneously at the Christchurch Art Gallery, we can see the principles that Hirschhorn is discussing here enacted in the three accompanying texts produced by each artist.
Et al produced a show in which the gallery was compartmentalized into sections by screens on which fragmented texts referring to religious fundamentalists etc were scralled over metal trays. The accompanying text which she presented was called the New Zealand Altruism Review (.3) with the subtitle Maintenance of Social Solidarity. The text has an interesting materiality, being printed black and red on News Print. It looks like a handmade newspaper. Overall the aesthetic of the fragmented, hand written texts and the content (refering to Iraqi elections, ‘chosen few’, etc.) offers information which leads our readings of the work in the show, for example we see a roughly drawn illustration of screens used during the Iraqi elections which resembles the screens presented in the show. The connection between the content of the publication and the show is loose and does not close down our reading of the work but does offer some supplementary (albeit confusing) information which helps us to read the work.
Seraphine Pick’s show was a very extensive retrospective. Accompanying her show was a large full colour book that is obviously intended to become a defining catalogue of the artist’s career (.4). The book included texts from various authors and very much attempts to “legitimize and revalorize” Picks career as a painter. Hirschhorn criticizes artists who rely on this strategy but it is perhaps appropriate to do this sometimes with important texts that are intended to showcase an entire career.
Ronnie van Hout also presented a fairly extensive retrospective but he takes an entirely different approach with the book that accompanies his show. Just as Hirschhorn made a self-made catalogue “designed to look like a high school magazine”(.5), Ronnie Van Hout’s book (.6) is designed to look like a children’s puzzle book. He uses this format to good effect, playing off the kinds of games that usually appear in childrens books and incorporating works from his career into the games. By incorporating the previous works into the book, it does in some ways serve the function of a retrospective catalogue but as a whole the publication becomes a new work in it’s own right. The way that he incorporates text and jokes into the games helps the catalogue to “discuss connections and contexts” and “provide space to raise questions”
(.1), (.2), (.5), pp.396
(.3) Et al, "New Zealand Altruism Review; Maintanance of Social Solidarity no.4", printed in association with the Adam Art Gallery, 2008/2009
(.4) "Seraphine Pick", Published by Christchurch City Gallery (?), August 2009
(.6) "Ronnie van Hout's Who Goes There Puzzle Book" published by Christchurch Art Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition Who Goes There, July 2009
The use of parallel images is quite an interesting subject which you touch on, and was something I wanted to talk about, but didn’t, in my blog post. Hirschorn states "A technically bad photograph is usually discarded systematically, even though it might better explain the work better than other photos"(Hirschhorn 2003). For Hirschorn quality is irrelevant, he would rather place emphasis on the portrayal of ideas. Also the agency of the producer and the production methods used is important to note, as it cuts out any third parties, giving direct power to the artist as the author in which to produce what they think best suit’s the artwork.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting how Hirschhorns past (or present) associations with communist ideals live on in his work. His approach to catalogues and also his work in general could be said to have a very left-wing stance. In cutting out third parties and making the catalogue himself he avoids the money making strategies and the corporate influences that might come from producing a large glossy colour book to accompany his work. He also always looks to expand the reading and avoids anything that might shut down his work in any way. Here we see that politics can influence seemingly non-political areas of an artist's practice.
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