"The Snake's Ghost" (2008)

"The Snake's Ghost" is the kind of kinetic sculpture for which Rebecca Horn has become known. It sits on the floor in the front room at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. It consists of a pool of gray water in a circular steel pan and a finely fabricated apparatus with a spiraling copper rod. The rod agitates the liquid from time to time as it nudges a dark form barely visible on the water’s surface. A spot lit from across the room shows a circle of light that is reflected onto the adjacent wall, projecting the ripples radiating from the rod’s point of entry into the water. As the ripples meet the edge of the pool, they return to create a complex of interference patterns. At the same time the motion of the apparatus calls attention to itself, pulling the eye back and forth between the generated and the generator. As the miniature waves bounce off the sides of the steel pan to devolve inwards, moments of stillness punctuate the activity; temporal patterns of both order and randomness appear. The projection, when stilled, reveals an apparent symmetry between the shadow of the snakelike apparatus and the apparatus itself. Horn’s kinetic sculpture seems capable of generating an infinite number of endlessly captivating images that recall principles of waveforms. Being of a scientific nature, they afford an endless landscape of mind devoid of emotion.

This piece, I think, is very substantial among her three-dimensional works. The assemblage's reflection on the wall suggests a magnified struggle between two waterborne microorganisms. If the poetry in this work is a little oblique, Horn's inclination toward resounding, discipline-bridging Gesamtkunstwerken is clear.

Waltemath, Joan. "Rebecca Horn: Cosmic Maps." Brooklyn Rail (2008). Web. 19 Nov 2009. http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/06/artseen/rebecca-horn-cosmic-maps2.

Princenthal, Nancy. "Rebecca Horn: Sean Kelly." Arts Publication (2009). Web. 19 Nov 2009. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_2_97/ai_n31438184/.

"Tree of Winter Dew Drops" (2007)

"Tree of Winter Dew Drops" contains a cascade of marks filling out the primary form. On close inspection one finds eyes and lips and any number of images forming and then disappearing again within the configuration of Horn’s gestures, which, in Winter Dew Drops, seem to speak to the fleshless of winter. This piece recalls the lopsidedness of the body’s memories, the fact that one side knows completely different things than the other as both engage so differently in the same tasks. Physical memories are a source that informs the ability to read one thing into a mark or gesture that might or might not be present for another. With her long history of performance works, Horn is an adept in the field.

"Tree of Winter Dew Drops" was a piece in Horn's "Cosmic Maps" exhibition. This piece was given the pride and placed on a central wall at the Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, splitting the difference between dour and ecstatic. Drawn in a watery gray that is delicate rather than melancholy, it features two centers of activity that could be eyes. Its it loosely symmetrical, grandly looping composition that recalls Dieter Roth's two-handed drawings, redoubling the figurative allusions.

I think this piece makes the viewer wonder around the watery grey marks to find what he is looking for. Horn does this on purpose to make the viewer think about the artwork. The different black marks makes me look all over the artwork and guess what the artwork is supposed to be.

Waltemath, Joan. "Rebecca Horn: Cosmic Maps." Brooklyn Rail (2008). Web. 19 Nov 2009. http://www.brooklynrail.org/2008/06/artseen/rebecca-horn-cosmic-maps2.

Princenthal, Nancy. "REBECCA HORN: SEAN KELLY." Art in America 97.2 (2009): 134-135. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 21 Nov. 2009.

"Finger Gloves" (1972)

"Finger Gloves" is a performance piece and the main prop of this performance and it was done in 1972. They are worn like gloves, but the finger form extends with balsa wood and cloth. This performance dealt with her own body and space. By being able to see what she was touching and the way in which she was touching it, it felt as if her fingers were extended and in her mind the illusion was created that she was actually touching what the extensions were touching. The ideas of touch and sensory awareness are explored in this work. Horn has described how wearing these gloves altered her relationship with her surroundings, so that distant objects came within her reach. Horn says, "The finger gloves are light. I can move them without any effort. Feel, touch, grasp anything, but keeping a certain distance from the objects. The lever-action of the lengthened fingers intensifies the various sense-data of the hand....I feel me touching, I see me grasping, I control the distance between me and the objects."

There is another piece that she did that is very similar to this one. It is part of her Berlin Exercises series done in 1974 called "Touching the Walls With Both Hands Simultaneously." In this piece she made more finger extension gloves, but this time measured it so that they specifically fit the selected space. If the chosen participant stood in the middle of the room, they could exactly touch the opposing walls simultaneously.

I think that Horn extends the body’s ability to touch with the hands, but at the same time distances the body from what is being touched. She exaggerates one sense by sacrificing another. By distancing herself from others the work is implicitly communicating "fear of contact." I think this is because of her background of confinement and loneliness, she is afraid to touch objects with her bare hands. Thus, she keeps her body at a distant while still being able to grab objects with her finger gloves.



"Finger Gloves 1972." Tate Collection (2002). Web. 15 Nov 2009.
http://www.tate.org/uk

"Finger Gloves." Media Art Net (2004). Web. 17 Nov 2009.
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/fingerhandschuhe/

Roustayi, Mina. "Rebecca Horn's Sensibility Machines." Getting Under The Skin (2007). Web. 17 Nov 2009.
https://www.msu.edu/course/ha/452/rebeccahorn.htm

"Unicorn" (1970)

Rebecca Horn's artwork was concerned with personal and psychological aspects of identity. The artworks featured props and were designed to be worn to exaggerate or constrain some aspect of the body’s anatomy or function. One of Horn's most famous pieces was "Unicorn." "Unicorn" is a video of a woman walking through the countryside for 12 hours wearing a "unicorn" object on her head, extending her head. The woman was a classmate of Horn in art school. "Unicorn" demonstrates Horn’s interest in poetical and mythological figures. The unicorn was a medieval symbol for purity, chastity, and innocence. The unicorn object was constructed from wood, metal, and fabric. It also has straps where the performer would strap it on her body. These straps are almost identical to the ones worn in Frida Kahlo’s painting Broken Column.

This work was designed for a performance by a friend of the artist. Horn describes the woman as "very bourgeois" and "a 21 year old and ready to marry." Horn wrote, "The performance took place in early morning – still damp, intensely bright – the sun more challenging than any audience... her consciousness electrically impassioned; nothing could stop her trance-like journey: in competition with every tree and cloud in sight...and the blossoming wheat caressing her hips." This account emphasizes both on the graceful movement and the element of self-exposure that is often found in Horn's work.

Jeanette Winterson writes, "The drawings for Unicorn, and the costume, are in this exhibition. The retrospective shows the primacy of drawing in Horn's work. There is a mass-market misconception that installation artists do not draw. This is generally not true, but in Horn's case, everything begins with a drawing: Making sketches with coloured pencils is still my favourite pastime. It is exciting to see the drawings alongside the fully realised work, and it is wonderful to see her latest "bodyworks", drawings on paper that spans the height and reach of her own body."

I think in this piece Horn wanted to show the beauty of this women by comparing it to a unicorn, which can symbolize many things. It is also interesting because this piece is a cross between performance and installation art. It also must have been difficult for Horn's friend to walk through the forest and woods naked with nothing but the unicorn object on.

"Rebecca Horn "Unicorn"." Media Art Net (2004). Web. 9 Nov 2009.

www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/einhorn/

"Unicorn 1970." Tate Collection (2002). Web. 15 Nov 2009.

http://www.tate.org/uk

Winterson, Jeanette. "The Bionic Woman." Guardian (2005). Web. 9 Nov 2009.

http://www.123people.co.uk/