MAREN HASSINGER

1. We are ALL vessels capable of compassion.

2. We are all equal. We share our humanity.

- Maren Hassinger

Susan Inglett Gallery is pleased to present We Are All Vessels, MAREN HASSINGER’s second solo exhibition with the Gallery, from 29 April through 12 June 2021.

Three large vessels framed in wire and clad in sheer fabric sway ethereally from the ceiling of the Gallery, two woven wire rope equivalents rest below, firmly planted on the ground. Hassinger looks to the vessel for its rich history and symbolism, for its resonance with the human body. Scale brings these objects in direct communication with the viewer, while their anthropomorphic design sparks a sense of recognition.

Hassinger observes that “vessel” is a term often ascribed to women. She asks that we free ourselves from the traditional limitations of that label, using her work to expand its meaning: “I believe that the word ‘people’ does not make the distinction of race, or gender, or class, or origin of any sort.” Hassinger shares the space with young artists, former students. By creating a platform where young and old, established and emerging, work together side by side equally, the project itself reinforces these signals of humanity. In the qualities shared by these vessels, and between us, we see our commonality writ large. We are indeed all Vessels.

WIRE ROPE

UNTITLED VESSEL (LARGE BODY) & UNTITLED VESSEL (SMALL BODY)

Wire rope has long held a prominent role in Maren Hassinger’s artistic practice. As a sculptor placed in the Fiber Arts program at UCLA in the early Seventies, Hassinger bridged the gap between the two with wire rope. Binding nature with industry, the artist takes a biomimetic approach to the material, whether creating a man-made environment embedding wire rope in concrete or unraveling the rope to form skeins of un-natural fiber. In the case of Untitled Vessel (Small Body) and Untitled Vessel (Large Body), the artist takes the latter approach, weaving the wire rope through the openings of a metal armature, moving over and under the support as if it were threads in a piece of fabric. The vessels that form the basis of this recent series serve as metaphor for the human body. While reminding us that we are each built from the same building blocks, that we are in essence all equal, the prickly wire rope that covers these containers suggests a more complicated truth.

FABRIC

Untitled Vessel (Beige), Untitled Vessel (Brown), and Untitled Vessel (Red)

In contrast to the physical heft and treachery of the metal vessels, lighter variations on the theme hover ethereally overhead. Here, Hassinger wraps the steel armatures in a skin of sheer fabric dyed in a natural palette of brown, tan, and terracotta red. Their otherworldly presence is underscored by the gentle sway set in motion with each passing breeze. With a nod to Hassinger’s career in dance and performance, the fabric vessels’ graceful rotations make us conscious of our collective experience as we move through space, navigating between the fragile and ethereal and the prickly and earthbound.

DRAWINGS

AMPHORA I & AMPHORA II

Hassinger’s totemic drawings present two variations on the amphora, or ancient Greek water vessel, each scaled to the human body. The artist delicately sketches the outline of these pots with a light but sweeping gesture, the shape and airiness of her mark analogous to the hanging fabric vessels. Amphora I and Untitled Vessel (Brown) share the same elongated neck and sloping sides⁠— Amphora II’s curved handles, like arms resting akimbo, connect with the steel handles of Untitled Vessel (Beige). The drawings are likewise in conversation with the steel sculptures, Untitled Vessel (Small Body) and Untitled Vessel (Large Body), the metallic graphite mark reflecting the wispy threads of wire rope. Sculptor's drawings hold a special place in the genre. Often spontaneous, refined expressions, they capture the very essence of their subject. Hassinger's drawings are no different, focusing on the basic lines that define us and traits that we all share. With these simple gestures, the artist reminds us that at root we are each of us the same, conceived as equals.

PHOTOGRAPHS

TREE DUET I & TREE DUET II

Tree Duet I & II, photographed by Adam Avila in the artist’s studio in 1974, shows the young Hassinger moving sinuously among several large branches, posing in dialogue with nature. Upon closer examination, we see that the artist has woven lengths of her signature wire rope among the branches bringing Man and Nature into communion. Hassinger celebrates the beauty found in nature with her subtle gestures and movements.

MAREN HASSINGER (b. 1947, Los Angeles, CA) lives and works in New York. She received her BA from Bennington College and her MFA in Fiber Structure from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has exhibited widely in both the United States and abroad with recent public installations, Monument, in Washington, D.C. through the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiative and Nature, Sweet Nature, at the Aspen Art Museum, slated to travel to the Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City. Her work is also on view in the exhibitions Knotted, Torn, Scattered: Sculpture after Abstract Expressionism at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC; Close to You at Mass MoCA, North Adams; and Topologies at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She will have a solo exhibition at Dia Bridgehampton later this year. Her work was recently featured in the inaugural installation of the newly renovated Museum of Modern Art; in Duro Olowu’s exhibition, Seeing Chicago, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Monuments at Marcus Garvey Park in partnership with the Studio Museum in Harlem, and in solo presentations at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Spelman College Museum of Art, Atlanta. Hassinger is the recipient of many awards and honors including grants from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Gottlieb Foundation, Anonymous was a Woman, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women's Caucus for the Arts. Her work can be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, among others.

MAREN HASSINGER: We Are All Vessels

WIRE ROPE

FABRIC

DRAWINGS

PHOTOGRAPHS

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