"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