Roni Horn

Underpinning her wider practice, drawing is a primary activity that has been integral to Horn’s oeuvre for nearly 40 years. The artist’s engagement with language permeates her Seizure of Hope series, relentlessly writing and rewriting the words ‘I am paralyzed with hope’ throughout the works on view. The phrase comes from a performance by the stand-up comedian Maria Bamford and was first used by Horn in her 2021 work ‘LOG (22 March 2019 – 17 May 2020),’ a large-scale installation comprised of 406 individual works on paper that function as a record of the world around her. The artist has described Bamford’s phrase as a ‘poignant connection to our time with regards to politics and the environment and now, of course, in relation to the pandemic.’

Evolving into the series on view, the words read as a stream of consciousness spilling across the paper, resonating with the contemporary anxieties of today. By drawing over the statement with a wax crayon, Horn allows the letters to bleed and appear indeterminate, as if being viewed underwater. The shifting handwriting styles are suggestive of various identities and invite the viewer to locate themselves within the work. With over 45 examples from the series on display, the idea of multiplicity is further articulated and the viewer is completely surrounded by the phrase. The abundance of the inscription and sheer volume of drawings both mirror the sentiment expressed by the words ‘I am paralyzed with hope,’ where hope accumulates to the point of immobilization.