tim hawkinson

Went to the Tim Hawkinson Retrospective at the Whitney
last Saturday, March 12, 2005.

His body of work is impressive not only because of the technique of the production of his sculptures, which are mostly kinetic and analog-but also because his work ranges in scale from tiny fingernail sculptures


left: EGG, 1997
Finely ground fingernails and hair, super glue 1x1.5x1 in.

right: BIRD, 1997
Fingernails and super glue 2x2x1.75 in.

to large scale pieces such as his kinetic self portrait




Each plastic piece of his face is controlled by a motor. The result is an organically dynamic self-portrait.

Emotor (detail), 2001
Mixed media: image, 49 x 36 x 4 inches; ladder, 27 x 24 x 19 inches; cable, 174 feet



Pentecost, 1999 (detail)
Polyurethane foam, sonotubes, solenoids, found computer program, and mechanical components
Dimensions variable
Andrea Nasher Collection

Description from the Whitney:
Twelve figures based on the Bathtub-Generated Contour Lace pattern were suspended within the branches of a tree composed of cardboard tubes covered with wooden-deck rubbings (Crow’s Nest). Each figure taps with a different part of his body on a branch of the tree. Syncopated, rhythmic patterns are generated by a found computer program.



Untitled, 2003 (detail)
Ink-jet prints on foam core on panel
68 x 117 (172.7 x 297.2)
Private collection; courtesy Ace Gallery

Description from the Whitney:
Hands, photographed in different positions, sprout from the fingertips of larger hands, which sprout from larger hands, repeating for five generations
of hands from fingers.

This piece is a fractal of hands. The hands sprouting from hands sprouting from hands is essentially an iteration.


Signature, 1993
School desk, paper, wood, and metal; motorized
37 x 28 x 24 (94 x 71.1 x 61)
Collection of Tony Krantz

Description from the Whitney:
A machine that signs my name onto a roll of paper, chops it off, and drops it into a pile.

The signature produced by this machine is very realistic, if you were to see one of the signatures on a piece of paper, you would not know that it was produced by a machine. The fact that the machine is mounted underneath a one armed school desk might suggest the repetitiveness of penmanship exercises in school.

Uber Organ is currently on display at The Sculpture Garden, at 590 Madison Avenue at 56th Street



Uber Organ is a large scale sculpture that plays a musical score via plastic pipes that are resemble internal organs.

Hawkinson's work, which is a fusion of organic sculpture with analog machinery results in work that plays with ideas of sculpture and machine as it relates to the human body. The subject matter of his work is not preachy and doesn't seem like it takes itself too seriously as a lot of artwork tends to do. Tim Hawkinson's work is that rare combination of technical and conceptual.