UNTITLED, 1990

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.