THOMAS HIRSCHHORN

Thomas Hirschhorn is a Swiss-born artist who emerged in the 1990s art world, and known for his giant, labour-intensive, room-sized collages of low grade materials. Tinfoil, cardboard, plywood, plastic and masking tape bring together an infinite variety of debris, including handwritten texts and images culled form popular magazines; miniature toy airplanes and trains; knick-knacks by the hundreds; armies of plastic ‘goldEwatches; effigies of Nietzsche and Princess Diana; household fans blowing red flags which flutter violently; monitors duct-taped into vitrines, ad infinitum. Borrowing from the languages of installation art, junk art, Pop and others, Hirschhorn’s work comments on the proliferation of consumables (‘very derived productsE the artist calls them) in our shopping-driven society. Despite its overt politics, installations like Bataille Monument (Documenta 11, 2002) Ehis temporary structure situated in a predominantly immigrant Kassel neighbourhood Emaintain a light, contemporary wunderkammer feel to be enjoyed by aficionados and non-initiates alike. Half-sculptural, half-architectural and fully revolutionary, some of his most elaborate installations, such as the multi-room Cavemanman (Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York, 2002), transform ordinary spaces into a labyrinthine, parallel universe of hybrid forms and fascinating accumulations. A key player in the contemporary art scene today, Hirschhorn moves beyond such recent art forms as the readymade, the ‘post-conceptualEand video, to offer an important, unprecedented direction for 21st century art.