Paula Hayes

wexner center for the arts

Paula Hayes

9.16.11–12.30.11

Almost a Verb

“A ‘logical picture’ differs from a natural or realistic picture in that it rarely looks like the thing it stands for.

The influential American sculptor and earthwork artist Robert Smithson (1938–1973) advanced what

It is a two dimensional analogy or metaphor—A is Z.”

has become one of the most enduring theories

—Robert Smithson

of the relationship between the natural world

1

“Smithson’s work is a representation of a relationship; I have a much more daily, interactive relationship to the earth. My process begins with a vision of what I want to create, followed by a long, careful process of enactment that doesn’t end—it sets into motion life and energy that I don’t always have control over.”

—Paula Hayes2

as artistic subject or referent and works of art displayed and consumed in galleries and museums.

In

an

effort

to

depart

from

the

historical tendency to view the landscape as the subject of pictorial depiction, Smithson proposed two terms that he set in dialectical relation to establish new coordinates for his engagement with natural subjects. The first of these terms, “site,” Smithson used quite simply to describe a geographically specific point of reference that might be the location of a work or the catalyst for a work installed elsewhere: in short, a bounded plot of land somewhere in the world. The second term, “non-site,” is a more complex conception. For Smithson, “The Non-Site

(an

indoor

earthwork)

is

a

three

dimensional logical picture that is abstract, yet it represents an actual site in N.J. (The Pine Barrens Plains). It is by this dimensional metaphor that one site can represent another site which does not resemble it—this is The NonSite.” He continues, “between the actual site

1. Robert Smithson, “A Provisional Theory of Non-Sites” (1968) in Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, ed. Jack Flam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 364.

2. Paula Hayes in conversation with Kristin M. Brockman, August 10, 2011.

Egg, 2010 Cast acrylic, handblown glass, cnc-milled topographical wall and ceiling attachment, full-spectrum lighting, and tropical planting 34”x 25”x 192 ” Photo: Béatrice de Géa (Detail at left)

in the Pine Barrens and The Non-Site itself exists a space of metaphoric significance. It could be that ‘travel’ in this space is a vast metaphor. Everything between the two sites could become physical metaphorical material devoid of natural meanings and realistic assumptions.”3 Smithson’s

“indoor

earthworks”

environments

do

represent

landscape

a

not

rely but

on

for

gallery

imitation

rather

to

literally

incorporate materials from the natural world, soil or coral, for instance, using them as representative (not representational) elements abstract

compositions,

often

featuring

mirrors. By displacing and recontextualizing natural materials, he rendered the quotidian and literal, laden and metaphoric.

An artist, landscape designer, and gardener for over two decades, Paula Hayes has cleverly undone the binary Smithson established with these two terms in her ongoing work with organic matter.

Smithson’s

non-sites

are

physically

inert sculptures, highly conventional in their status as objects to be looked at, providing visual cues for subjective metaphoric thinking about

the

possible

relationships

between

them and the sites that are their referents.

Smithson’s sculptures play to the life of the mind, conjuring connections to a living reality elsewhere. The terrariums for which Hayes is best known, and which take center stage in this exhibition, between

the

acknowledge natural

no

world

such and

distinction the

gallery:

they are literally alive and that fact does not require fictive excursions of the mind but physical participation. These exquisite blownglass vessels contain viable ecological systems that introduce living matter to an institutional setting, making nature both the subject and the object of the artist’s work: one and the same, inseparable. Smithson’s indoor sculptures are indexes of a primary site that is necessarily absent. Hayes, by contrast, collapses index and

3. Robert Smithson, “A Provisional Theory of Non-Sites,” 364.

Almost a Verb

in

referent to produce active sites with a deep

resist being totally subsumed as metaphor and

connection to the concept of ecology in the

so maintain a footing in the world that allows

broadest sense, yet with absolute integrity as

them to exceed the conventional categories of

independent objects separate and apart from any

art and become something else entirely.

specific referent. They are metaphoric in the grandest sense, yet entirely present, literal, and alive.

Smithson identified public parks, particularly New York City’s Central Park, as sites in a constant state of becoming, or as he described

Although Hayes and Smithson share an investment

them,

in metaphor as a device for communicating their

existing in a physical region.”4 In Hayes’s

conceptual

concerns,

their

use

of

metaphor

hands,

“a

process

Smithson’s

of

ongoing

vast,

relationships

public

process

of

diverges sharply. The metaphoric value of a work

becoming is reconfigured on a microscale as the

like Egg (2010), for example, is not derived

relationship between a single living artwork

through

engagement,

and

instead

is

collector a curator in the most traditional

performed on the level of care, modeling on

sense of that term—a caretaker of things—and

an intimate microlevel the close attention it

transforms a mere object into something wholly

takes to sustain life, and in turn advancing an

other, as the artist has noted, “almost a verb.”

as

in

looking Smithson’s

or

intellectual

non-sites,

but

an

owner.

This

agreement

renders

every

argument for our fundamental interconnectedness as a society and as a planet. Yet for all their

Almost a Verb

seductive, metaphoric charge, these sculptures

Christopher Bedford

remain

Wexner Center Chief Curator of Exhibitions

determinedly

terrestrial,

vulnerable,

and as dependent on care and maintenance as any living thing. Hayes’s tiny ecologies require light and water to survive, and their owners (or exhibitors) are responsible for providing both, or the objects as they acquired them and know them will cease to be. In fact, Hayes has made a written contract—her Agreement for a Living Artwork—an integral part of her work.

In their resolute literalness, her sculptures

4. Robert Smithson, ”Frederick Law Olmsted and the Dialectic Landscape” (1973), Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings, 160.

Hayes’s green terrariums are planted and cared for by the artist, ever so delicately, until they are ready to be passed on to their eventual owners. In the course of transferring ownership, Hayes asks new owners/caretakers to sign an agreement outlining their commitment to nurture and care for the living artwork. Hayes began making terrariums in 1994 for an exhibition titled A Life of Secrets at the artist-run AC Project Room in New York, and she developed the first iteration of her contractual agreement for the show. The Agreement for a Potted Plant as an Artwork she prepared then has evolved into the Agreement for a Living Artwork she currently uses. You can read it on the inside front cover of this gallery guide.

Terrarium T026, 2006 Hand-blown glass with tropical plantings 26”x 12”x 11” Courtesy of the artist Photo: Sherry Griffin

1. Paula Hayes, “Getting to Z (Another Kind of A): ‘Egg’ Acrylic-Casting Process,” MoMA Inside/Out Blog, November 2, 2010. http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2010/11/02/ getting-to-z-another-kind-of-a-egg-acrylic-casting-process

Green Terrariums

MG06: Moon Gem Terrarium, 2008 Hand-blown glass with plantings 16”x 13”x 10 ” Courtesy of the artist Photo: Eva Heyd

Hayes’s imaginative artworks are often based on natural concepts and processes. The form of Egg, for example, is inspired by the ritual mating “dance” of leopard slugs. And all of the artist’s terrarium sculptures incorporate the sustenance and growth of living plants, as well as the processes of care and tending that plants require. Egg and Giant Dome Terrarium GT101 on Iceberg Pedestal are the oldest terrariums you’ll see here. Both contain tropical plantings that have been cultivated over several years. The youngest terrariums in the gallery are those in the installation Hills and Clouds. Created specifically for this exhibition, these “micro-terrariums” are diminutive enough to be held in the palm of a hand. Describing the vessels that hold the green terrariums, Hayes says: “In my mind, the rigor of creating these vehicles strengthens the message that the interior landscape is to be taken very seriously and cared for with precision. This is my ultimate goal.”1

Many of Hayes’s crystal gardens utilize handblown biomorphic glass forms, each having a unique identity, just as her green terrariums do. The artist thinks of these delicate vessels as a gentle breath of material that “partially contains something so ephemeral.”2 Some crystal garden containers are made of silicone or resin instead of glass, but those forms also are biomorphic.

Crystal Garden MG035, 2010 Hand-blown glass with gems 21”x 19”x 13 ” Courtesy of the artist Photo: John Gray (Detail below)

Within each crystal garden, Hayes carefully composes arrangements of minerals, stones, and other geological and fabricated “power objects.”

She considers the crystal gardens to be living artworks, just as her terrariums are. The crystal gardens are “manifestations of the invisible,” as the artist says, imbued with the forces and energies of the natural world conveyed through the objects placed inside. The spiritual and personal meanings of these works are linked to individual and communal histories and mythologies, another interest that recurs throughout Hayes’s art.3

2. Paula Hayes, “Paula Hayes,” Glasstress 2011 (Collateral event of the 54th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale de Venezia). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC6xZP6olTQ 3. Paula Hayes, in conversation with Kristin M. Brockman, August 10, 2011.

Crystal Gardens

Wexner Center Roof Garden, 2011 Digital photo rendering Courtesy of the artist

Paula Hayes and Teo Camporeale’s Garden, Brooklyn, NY Courtesy of the artist Photo: Béatrice de Géa

Hayes refers to her garden designs as “a sculptural practice” that is loosely based on familial structures.4 She thinks of herself as a matriarchal figure in the process of conceiving, designing, and planting her outdoor installations, managing the many tasks and individuals necessary to realize what appear to be effortlessly beautiful landscapes. One of these landscapes is now situated just outside the Wexner Center. The Wexner Center Roof Garden was developed in conjunction with this exhibition but will continue as a permanent installation.

Hayes carefully lays out her materials—sedum, grasses, perennials, and pond and silicone planters—and composes each landscape as a painter would, considering the totality of the installation and minute details with equal care. Common to her landscapes, including the Wexner Center Roof Garden, is Hayes’s commitment to working with the highest degree of site-specificity possible, using locally sourced materials, as well as engineers, designers, and master gardeners from that location. Her landscapes are arranged in response to the surrounding architecture, interacting harmoniously with the existing site and breathing new life into these locations.

Section texts by Curatorial Assistant Kristin M. Brockman.

4. Ibid.

Landscapes

Hayes, who supported herself as a gardener during her college years, began her landscape design and garden practice in earnest in the mid-1990s. She has made public and private gardens throughout the world in the years since.

Artist Talk: Paula Hayes

Free Gallery Admission

WED, NOV 16 | 7 PM Film/Video Theater FREE

Enjoy free admission to the fall exhibitions every Thursday from 4 to 8 PM and on the first Sunday of each month.

Paula Hayes talks about the development of her art and recent projects including works in this exhibition and the new Wexner Center Roof Garden.

Multimedia Tour Learn more about works in this exhibition from our free portable multimedia tour. See the front desk for details.

Walk-In Tours THURSDAYS AT 5 PM (Beginning September 22) SATURDAYS AT 1 PM (Beginning September 24) Meet at the entrance to the galleries FREE with gallery admission

Super Sunday: Think Green SUN, OCT 2 | 12–5 PM FREE Join us for an open house to celebrate our fall exhibitions, featuring free gallery admission and fun, engaging activities for visitors of all ages. Make your own environmentally inspired work of art, learn about making earth-friendly choices from local “green” organizations, hear from the Columbus Zoo about how climate change is impacting animal habitats, and more!

Visit wexarts.org for a complete schedule of events.

The Wexner Center’s fall exhibitions are made possible by a significant contribution from Battelle.

The Wexner Center Roof Garden has been made possible through the generosity of The Trueman Family, with significant additional support from Ohio State’s office of Facilities Operations and Development.

The Wexner Center also receives generous support from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Nationwide Foundation, and the Ohio Arts Council, as well as from the Corporate Annual Fund of the Wexner Center Foundation and Wexner Center members.

EXHIBITION AND GARDEN SUPPORT

THE TRUEMAN FAMILY THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FACILITIES OPERATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT GENERAL SUPPORT FOR THE WEXNER CENTER

Find out more about our current exhibitions when you visit the galleries with a Wexner Center docent. Just stop in! No reservations are required.

COVER: Crystal Garden MG033, 2010 (detail) Courtesy of the artist Photo: John Gray BACK COVER: Giant Dome Terrarium GT101 on Iceberg Pedestal, 2009 Rigid foam with painted epoxy, hand-blown glass with plantings, full-spectrum lighting Terrarium: 18”x 25 ” Pedestal: 39”x 39”x 38” Photo: Jason Wyche

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