MAREN HASSINGER

Steel is strong enough to reinforce a building, yet delicate enough to form a scalpel. In the artist Maren Hassinger’s work, the material adopts both of those qualities. As a sculptor placed in the Fiber Arts program at UCLA in the early Seventies, Hassinger chose wire rope as her medium bridging the gap between the two practices.

In her "Woven Vessel" series, Hassinger looks to the vessel for its rich history and symbolism, for its resonance with the human body. Weaving wire rope into forms both structured yet porous, pliant yet solid, these works draw direct connections between humanity, the natural world, and the Vessel, an object that holds consistent power across time and place. Binding nature with industry, the artist evokes a striking juxtaposition between steel, a material known for its raw strength and large-scale utility, and the vessel, a form associated with prosaic, human-centric design and natural materials like clay.

Iterations of the vessel have appeared in her work since 2021, leaning into the vessel's common use as a proxy for the body. Here, vessels are formed using strands of wire rope that mimic the branches overhead, woven and interlaced as though they are objects not made, but grown. The works are made in tribute to nature’s wild beauty, simultaneously acknowledging the respite and contemplation one achieves when in communion with nature, and its unpredictable volatility.

Scale brings these objects in direct communication with the viewer, while their anthropomorphic design sparks a sense of recognition. Hassinger ascribes particular significance to the affinity between her vessels and the body, observing that "vessel" is a term often used as a metaphor for the human body. By reducing the form to its most basic structure, she reminds us that we are more alike than different.

"1. We are ALL vessels capable of compassion.
2. We are all equal. We share our humanity."
- Maren Hassinger