Artist Jim Hodges makes the mundane extraordinary
Acclaimed artist Jim Hodges may be well known in the art world, but he's far from a household name.
He is, however, a master of taking ordinary objects that one might find in a house and transforming them into imaginative and grand works.
Take for example the huge wall hanging he was inspired to create while driving his truck near his studio in upstate New York. He had been enjoying the huge cloudbanks above the landscape and the way the sun lanced through them when a realization suddenly struck him.
"It seemed very clear to me that I should make that image out of denim," he said. "And it just felt so completely succinct and clear and obvious to me."
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So he began collecting old denim in different colors, slowly sewing them together. The finished piece is an enormous skyscape that from a distance looks like a painting.
The piece of art culminates Hodges' show set to open this weekend at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, which celebrates 25 years of his work. For many — anyone who has cut up an old pair of jeans, for example — his pieces offer a sense of familiarity.
Part of Hodges' genius is the reimagining of everyday things, said Walker director Olga Viso, a co-curator of the show.
"Oftentimes they are very loaded, intentionally loaded because they carry cultural associations and generational associations," she said. "We know what they feel like. We wear them, we touch them, we hold them — things that we have great connectedness to that he just transforms."
Anyone who is unfamiliar with the artist's work can experience it by walking by the Walker and pausing near three boulders next to the building. Partially covered in mirrored steel, they offer visitors distended reflections of themselves. It's a classic example of Hodges' creativity.
Another of his pieces is a billowing curtain of color — 18 feet tall and almost as wide — made of vintage headscarves.
The piece is particularly special for Viso, as it was the first work of Hodges that she saw, and a piece that immediately touched her.
"Many of these scarves were very familiar to me, some of the tie-dye patterns. And my mom would wrap my hair in them when I was a kid, and I would pull these scarves out of the drawer," Viso said. "And I had this very visceral reaction where I could almost even smell my mom's perfume. It just transported me. And I had this very intimate, private moment in a public space."
Many artists say they create work for themselves. Hodges believed that until this show, "Jim Hodges: Give More Than You Take" first opened last year at the Dallas Museum of Art.
"What struck me the most, and something I had not realized before, is I am not the audience for my work," he said. "And that felt very palpable to me there."
Hodges describes his work as performative: visitors supply their own endings to what he has begun.
"I do think that the work functions as a portal or a transporter, of some kind of transformation is occurring," he said. "I tend to think that specific place is really beyond my control in terms of where people go to."
The indie super group Sisyphus, has produced an entire album of songs inspired by Hodges work. It's being released in conjunction with the Walker show. They will play at the opening tomorrow night and on Saturday, Feb. 15.
The exhibit demonstrates how prolific Hodges has been over the years, and how many forms his work has taken. It includes drawings, including one he recreates each time in pencil on the wall.
There also are huge mirrors carefully patterned with cracks. Like glitter balls, they scatter fractured reflections around the room.
The exhibit also features ornately kitsch glass sculptures, and large photos of trees with many of the leaves cut out and dangling, offering visitors a view of the white void beyond.
For Viso, choreography is an inherent part of Hodge's work. As she stood inside a circle of canvas screens with carefully applied designs in 24-carat gold leaf, she pointed out how our reflections become part of the piece.
"And it changes if you are moving in this place alone, or if there are others inside the piece with you," she said. "It does sort of unfold, as a lot of Jim's work does, where you are an essential part of the experience of it. And that, I think, is something that is consistent about Jim's work. He invites you in to make the piece with him."
