Roni Horn Untitled to Nest #5

cm 60 x 80

After studying at the Rhode Island School of Design (1972-1975) and the Yale University (1976-1978), where she took an MFA in sculpture, Roni Horn made her debut in the art world in the 1980s. From the very outset, her work was distinguished by the use of various media, ranging from drawing and sculpture to photography and the artist’s book. A common feature of all her work is the attention she gives to the viewer, around whom Horn invariably creates a particularly absorbing situation. It is by virtue of this distinctive quality that the artist has broadened the category of site-specific art, and she refers to her own works as “site-dependent.” Horn began to use photography in the 1990s, placing it at the center of complex installations in which certain recurrent elements of her work can be found, including the opposition between the essence of a thing and its aesthetic, and the playful use of forms and codes. At the end of the 1990s, with works like "Pi" (1998), Horn forged new relations between photography and architectural space, creating a circular environment of images mounted at the height of the viewer’s gaze. The implicit reference here is to the horizon, with the spectator being invited to observe the installation as a whole rather than focus on individual photographs. One of the themes of the series is eggs, the subject of "Untitled to nest # 5", a reference to natural and experienced time, and to the cyclical nature of the seasons.

No

L. Neri, L. Cooke, T. de Duve (eds.), Roni Horn, London 2000; J. Storsve, P. Herkenhoff (eds.), Roni Horn. Dessins, exhibition catalogue (Paris, Centre Pompidou; Venice, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa), Saint Herblain-Venice 2003; Roni Horn aka Roni Horn, London 2009 Roni Horn, exhibition catalogue (Munich, Sammlung Goetz), Ostfildern 2012.

Foto Roberto Galasso

Donation by Claudia Gian Ferrari

Photography