Tim Hawkinson
You can't just walk by a work of art by Tim Hawkinson. It's not the dimensions, which range from minuscule to gigantic, nor is it the the click of a motor or methodical drip of water that may emanate from the art - mostly, it is the genuine emotions that his work evokes in us. Born in San Francisco in 1960, Hawkinson went to San Jose State University and then on to the University of California, Los Angeles for an MFA. Some stand-outs of his work include Uberorgan, a stadium-size, bagpipe-like structure crafted out of miles of inflated plastic sheeting connected to a kind of piano player. Hawkinson often incorporates the human body (sometimes his own) into sculptures that remind us of its simultaneous complexity and simplicity and of the emotions that go along with it. The work Pentecost consists of a tree-like structure with twelve human figures hanging on the branches. A motion sensor cues the figures to respond to your presence by striking the corresponding branches at different moments. And then there is the two-inch high skeleton of a bird, which upon closer inspection you realize is made out of Hawkinson's fingernail parings. Tim Hawkinson's work has been shown at the 1999 Venice Biennale, MASS MoCA, and at the 2002 Whitney Biennial. Most recently he was commissioned by the J. Paul Getty Museum to create new works for an exhibition titled Zoopsia.
