Exploring Boundaries Between Organic & Artificial Form

Australian artist Timothy Horn’s sculptures attempt to locate the area of slippage between the organic and artificial. Horn will talk about his work and influences, which range from chandelier-like jellyfish to a crystallized rock-sugar encrusted carriage on Friday October 9 at 7:30pm at the Complex.

The Australian-born artist focuses on the meeting point between the natural and constructed worlds. His work draws extensively from the sphere of decorative arts and is concerned with the inherent or assigned gendering of objects. Horn’s more recent work attempts to locate the area of slippage between the organic and artificial.

Often working at an ambitious scale, he chooses for their inherent physical and metaphorical qualities. Inspired by 19th-century zoologist Ernst Haeckel’s engravings of jellyfish, he began an ongoing series of large works made of transparent rubber that culminated in 2006 in his first solo exhibition in New York, entitled Villa Medusa. More recently, Horn was inspired by Catherine the Great’s fabled Amber Room, frequently called the eighth wonder of the world, to create a crystallized rock sugar encrusted carriage for his exhibition Bitter Suite at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2008.

Horn came to live in New Mexico three years ago. It is a region and landscape that has greatly influenced his work. Horn will talk about his work in relation to its influences.