Eva Hesse, (1967) Addendum [Painted papier mâché, wood and
cord], 12.4 x 302.9 x 20.6 cm.
Known mostly for sculptural works, Eva Hesse also worked in
painting and drawing, Hesse refused to acknowledge that painting was dead, a
notion that was wild in New York in the 60s.
In her days as a student at Yale, one of Hesse’s teachers was none other than Josef
Albers, when Hesse created paintings she was unhappy with, she would
often rip them apart and assemble them as a collage. Hesse viewed collage as “one
idea cancelling those of another”, the mode of collage itself creates a strong
sense of tension and disruption, with Hesse’s working processes often evoking
the boundaries for meaning.
Hesse’s progression into obsessive lines of development,
specifically with her exploration of materials such as latex, Hesse was able to
explore the deterioration of materiality and the possibilities offered by
irregularity. Often set by critics in a minimalist rhetoric, the visual
language of Hesse seems formed by an autonomous existence, spurred by a desire to
create as a means of constructing boundaries by drawing in space an admission
to absurdity.
There is a strong sense of concentration in Hesse’s geometric
forms, within Hesse’s Addendum, (above), hemispheres are deposited into existence,
positioned at intervals determined by a mathematical series to remove
artificial emotion, to construct a serial mute response.
Eva Hesse (1970) Untitled (Rope Piece) [Latex, rope,
string and wire], dimensions variable. © The estate of Eva Hesse.
Artists whose work Hesse admired included Marcel Duchamp,
whose total absurdity drew parallels to Hesse’s work percolated by
contradiction and chaos. In works such as Untitled
(Rope piece), Hesse brings about a sense of suspension between states of
being , as though Hesse is physically and metaphorically waiting for the latex
and thus the pain of existence to set into the realms of reality. It as though
Hesse is tracing lines of inquiry into working processes of moments of
spontaneous unconscious expressions.
Hesse’s processes evoke a sense of touch and texture as
though the texture transposes a piece into existence as layers of latex are
painted onto the rope acting as layers of consciousness. The rope acts as a
continuous line across a visual field constructing connections in a physical
mode of mark making drawing in space. Trapped in reality, tracing lines of enquiry
into a suspended reality and existence the viewer enters into suspended states
of being waiting, watching for the latex and the reality it is drying into, to
set in the shadows of truth.
Eva Hesse, (1966) Hang
Up [Acrylic paint on cloth over wood; acrylic paint on cord over steel tube],
182.9 x 213.4 x 198.1 cm.
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