A latex balloon self-portrait, Balloon Self-Portrait #4, created by shaving every hair from his body and a latex mold coating his skin is turned inside out and inflated; hanging like a sail above a Shoji screen imprinted with a magnificent three-masted warship forged by assembling sheets of paper with the pastel rubbings of the wooden grain from the artist’s porch Crow’s Nest; a bronze mermaid swims along the side of the ship; its form shaped by the space between the artist’s legs The Fin Within; a Cronenbergian pirate gun constructed from bread dough Gun; a topographical map realized by photographing the diminishing water levels as the artist bathes forged into a green styrofoam island (Prototype for Pentacost), a human skeleton fashioned from dog chew toys whistles at you as you pass by Penitent; an inflated first mate accomplishes his look-out choirs as he rises through a basketball hoop / crow’s nest Fathead; and finally, a mop that verbally abuses you with a screeching mechanical voice rather than washing the decks Ranting Mop Head. These are the many personas of Tim Hawkinson whose work full frontally assaults the essence of self-portraiture. His body is a vessel, as the exhibition space becomes his ship.

Concurrent: Tim Hawkinson at Pace