UNBORN /2019
Solo exhibition, site specific installation for mh PROJECT nyc.
“There is perhaps no clearer testimony to the loss of the public realm in the modern age than the almost complete loss of authentic concern with immortality, a loss somewhat overshadowed by the simultaneous loss of the metaphysical concern with eternity.”
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition
UNBORN is a site-specific installation by Zac Hacmon for mh PROJECT nyc. Created during his 2018-19 LMCC Workspace residency, the artist’s curious structures explore the realms of conflict, duality, placelessness and identity while questioning the role of society’s reliance on modular industrial objects. Using architecture as a mediator, Hacmon’s vessels violate the gallery space by blurring the boundaries between public and private spheres.
Hinged upon the concept of the in-between, Hacmon considers his works to be functional structures as opposed to passive sculptures. His Capsules, which are part of an ongoing series, perform like functional devices that bridge space. Comprised of 16” x 16” modular squares—a standard size for architectural parts like ceiling or floor tiles—each vessel can be likened to what the artist calls a “fake readymade” given their close resemblance to a product.
Capsule 2, which is the largest work on view, literally invades and transforms the project space by penetrating a public wall that connects to an adjoining private space. Disruptive by design, the sculpture questions the ownership of space with its eight sound-proof windows that separate the viewer from the inside with a column of stark light.
Capsule 3 generates a hierarchy between the space and the viewer. Jutting out from a wall like a displaced security booth, the boxy work hovers high above the gallery floor. Replete with windows that emit light and reflect infinite space, viewers are kinesthetically guided to reconsider and reorient their physical engagement within the space.
The third work in the show, Open Secret, occupies a low space on the gallery wall like an illuminated exhaust fan. Unlike the two Capsule works that point outward from the project space, Open Secret points light directly into the gallery, making the viewer aware of their position as a participant within the installation.
Although different in form, each of the works in UNBORN exudes a sense of timelessness due to their use of light, reflection and void. Whether mimicking an institutional space or an industrial object, Hacmon’s super hyper functional structures place the viewer in a shared safe zone in which they can surveil on their own accord.
