In a brief but explosively inventive career, Alina Szapocznikow (1926 – 1973) radically re-conceptualized sculpture as a vehicle for exploring, liberating, and declaring bodily experience, from the ecstatic, to the harrowing, to the uncanny.
Through her material experiments, Szapocznikow generated a series of lamps, exemplified here by the ‘Lampe Bouche (Illuminated Lips)’ (1966) works, functional sculptures of glowing female lips extending from elongated stem-like bases. Although the artist lived and worked in Paris at the time, her focus on malleable material as a proxy for the body firmly positions her among contemporaries practicing in the United States, including Eva Hesse, Hannah Wilke, and Lynda Benglis, as well as noted friend Louise Bourgeois, to whom Szapocznikow dedicated and gifted two of the lamps on view.
An integral component of Szapocznikow’s practice was her mastery of new materials and techniques. Thus, she produced most of her work in her own studio rather than outsourcing fabrication to a factory. By focusing on an intimate, tactile relationship with her mediums, Szapocznikow was able to push the experimental boundaries of artistic gesture, resulting in such works as Souvenirs. On view on the gallery’s second floor, these sculptures, radically integrate polyester resin, glass, wool, and photographs that capture both personal and collective histories – images ranging from a picture of Alina as a child, to a photo of a female victim of a concentration camp, to a portrait of ‘60s icon Twiggy. The Souvenirs suggest mementos – or memento mori – for an ambiguous new era.
To Exalt the Ephemeral: Alina Szapocznikow, 1962 – 1972 is on view through December 21 @ Hauser & Wirth 548 West 22nd Street New York.