At first, you might experience the sensation that you are seeing things, as the title Zoopsia suggests, but the imaginary organ-isms and creatures at the Getty Center created by Tim Hawkinson are quite real. Plan to see one giant pink octopus, a tiny, frazzled bat, an inked dragon, and a 12 foot sculpy-saurus. Music is provided for five minutes every hour on the hour by Uberorgan, the world's largest, electric powered, aerial balloon/horn instrument that produces its tunes based on the similar, non-rude, sound-making technologies of the foghorn and the famed Whoopee Cushion. It is a collection of an extraordinary kind.
From Zoopsia: New Works by Tim Hawkinson forward, contemporary artist's works will be exhibited alongside the old and the ancient as part of the Getty Museum's 21st century plan to refresh and reinvigorate the spirit of the Getty Center. It is an idea that will draw many new people to the beautiful setting on the hill, no doubt.
Tim Hawkinson is so much an artist of our time. It is a wonderful idea to place his work near art works by artists who expressed the artistic sensibilities of their day. The juxtaposition offers the chance to ponder a broader history and to compare the tools, language and messages of a contemporary artist with the ways that artists of the past deciphered the worlds around them and communicated their ideas.
For the art viewing public, it is equally fascinating to consider who might have stood before pieces in the Getty collection in another place, in another time. What would the ancients have thought of Zoopsia? The contrast, especially with Tim Hawkinson, speaks volumes about the differences but it also underscores the across-the-centuries connection the appreciative mind makes with art and the artist.
Each piece in Zoopsia, though part of a themed exhibition, stands on its own as an idea fabricated for and by itself. One aspect that sets Tim Hawkinson apart from others and makes his imagery so provocative for the contemporary mind is the open path he offers to explore the process in the work. We are a society heavily influenced by cognitive science and shared knowledge through computers and the internet. Hawkinson's work embodies that mind set and invites you to journey through an idea and its resolution with him.
What would ancient Romans have thought of Zoopsia at the Getty Center? I think they would enjoy it as much as I did.
Zoopsia: New Works by Tim Hawkinson
J. Paul Getty Museum, The Getty Center
March 6 - September 9, 2007
For more information
http://www.getty.edu/
Address comments and questions to
Marti@socal.com
