Tim Hawkinson: Family Resemblance | "Exclusive" | Art21

[Tim Hawkinson: Family Resemblance]

The first piece, as you walk into the space,

is a railroad signal crossing lantern.

We can unlock it and I can lower it for you.

[INTERVIEWER, OFF-SCREEN] Oh, okay! That would be very...

[HAWKINSON] An action shot.

[INTERVIEWER, OFF-SCREEN] Yes, please!

[HAWKINSON] I'm going to get the key.

Could we get the key?

Okay, there we go.

Yeah, so...

It's a butt-head Fresnel lens,

using the same body molds that I used in the seahorse

and then in the lens-mobile.

The title is "Double Dutch".

All the pieces in the show take their titles from Girl Scout cookies,

and some of the cookies are retired Girl Scout cookies.

Some are more...

ones we're maybe more familiar with,

like Samoa.

Kookaburra, I think.

But there are no Thin Mints.

Nothing quite worked as a Thin Mint.

My daughter Clare is a Brownie.

A couple of months ago, she was in the process of making sales,

going door-to-door with her list of Thin Mints

and Tagalongs, and all that.

My favorite is Samoa.

I won't stick my tongue out, I just had coffee.

[LAUGHS]

I suppose I was working on the bronze figure--

me with my tongue sticking out...

The tongue sticking out had this very aggressive expression,

like a Samoan war cry.

I thought that would be a possible title,

and then started looking at other Girl Scout cookie names

as possibilities for other pieces,

and some of them sort of fit almost like they were intentional.

There are things in the show that I have made with Clare through time.

She kind of has given me ideas.

It's somebody now to bounce ideas off of,

as well as to get this different perspective.

She kind of appears in different guises.

Maybe a little bit in the foot,

which has a friendship ankle bracelet extension cord.

I don't think that would be there if she weren't weaving me friendship bracelets

and bracelets for her friends.

That's Clare's bike.

She learned to ride without training wheels.

After she was no longer using it,

I asked her permission to chop her bike up.

[LAUGHS]

She's kind of used to me coming up with these

second lives for things lying around the house.

The individual plates that a seahorse is composed of,

they're called scutes.

I wanted to use my different body impressions as all the scoots

on the seahorse.

So, down here are the fingers.

Further up, thumbprints.

The eyes are kind of bellybuttons.

These kind of horn structures are my mouth

just the forming of a kiss.

You can kind of read body parts a little more clearly in the bubbles.

You can see different skin textures.

The largest one is my head--

two skull caps, fit together.

The seahorse is made out of polyester resin--

the same material that I use to coat the animal piece,

"Animal Treasures".

It's a mobile.

Each cub is balanced on the tooth of the next one.

An infant's heart rate, within five seconds,

will drop when it's being held by its mother or grandmother.

There is this very, kind of, relaxed gesture there.

This body of work is relating more to my family—

specifically my parents.

I mean, if you want to go personal for a moment,

I can say that I just feel very torn being here

because my mother is dying right now.

You know, I reflected a lot on,

you know, just the family relationship,

and the embrace.

So it has that kind of embrace,

where each figure is placing its trust in the next generation up.