RELIEF ABSTRAIT IV

Thomas Hirschhorn

Using his signature materials of plywood, cardboard, aluminum foil, packing tape, and copious photocopies, Thomas Hirschhorn makes installations that advance pointed critiques of the global military-industrial complex. Hirschhorn’s works overflow with imagery and text, created with a deliberately slap-dash DIY aesthetic and often incorporating the writings of such Leftist philosophers as Antonio Gramsci and Georges Bataille. The over-abundance of ideas and images in Hirschhorn’s installations mimics the media saturation of contemporary life and highlights the desensitization that consumers experience as a result. For Laundrette (2001), the artist transformed the gallery space into a facsimile of a typical Laundromat, complete with drab linoleum floor, garbage bins, and chained up plastic chairs, juxtaposed with the phrases from Marxist writings adorning the walls.