Louise
Bourgeois | Niki de Saint Phalle
| Eva Hesse | Rebecca Horn
Yayoi Kusama | Annette
Messager |
Jessica Stockholder
photo by Massimo Piersanti, from Rebecca Horn, Guggenheim Museum Publications
Rebecca Horn
Rebecca Horn was born in Germany in 1944. She attended the Akademie der Künste in Hamburg. In addition to sculptures, Horn has made films and often writes text to accompany her sculptural work.
Horn's early work was mainly appendages or prosthetics for the human body. There are long pointy head, shoulder and finger extensions, feather cocoons, masks and fabric strips that inhibit or emphasize bodily movement.
Her later work includes vessels, often glass, filled with liquid. These are sometimes part of a larger installation of various objects, especially mechanized ones.
The example here, River of the Moon: Room of Lovers, is comprised of violins, motors and a bed. It was photographed in the Hotel Peninsular, Barcelona in 1992. The title, the use of a hotel room and the sound of violins conjurs images of romance; the whimsical placement of multiple violins brings to mind dancing. It is as if the lovers have left the hotel room and we are left with a visual residue of their memories.
Besides creating this installation in a hotel, Horn has also used a school, a beach and a tower where war prisoners were once tortured as sites for her work.
