A prospective city councillor for Merseyside has recently said that Antony Gormley's "Iron Men", disseminated along a polluted stretch of the Irish Sea, should be destroyed. The email response of the general public (not the "art" public) has been vigorous to say the least. "This is our heritage"; "It's fascinating to see how the sea, sand and weather—and also to some extent, the visitors!—interact with them over time"; "They are part of the community now". A moving testimony to the intimate yet public impact of some contemporary art.
At first sight it is, of course, abstract, though the usual figurative metaphors for describing it come to mind: cloudbanks, waves, billowing sails. And yet, however tiny, the individual elements are there to see and recognize. In this case they are miniscule boats. And once the characteristic beauty of Hashimoto's work has been digested, not as an "extra" but as an inherent part of its meaning, so these other thoughts and emotions also present themselves. Here we are enveloped by these boats breasting the invisible sea around us: these are old and persistent emotions, all the more potent because here they are so airily and lightly expressed.
Michael Haggerty
May 14–September 17 2011
Jacob Hashimoto. Armada
Studio la Città, Verona (Italy)
Although Jacob Hashimoto often works on a small scale, like Gormley he mainly works in expansive public contexts, while conveying an intimacy that allows the work to be both 'a part of the community' and part of individual experience.