Opener 4: Jim Hodges

Likened to souvenirs of lived experience, Jim Hodges’ works are painstakingly assembled visual diaries made from familiar household items such as fabric, mirrors, chains, light bulbs, and aluminum foil. These delicate installations mark the passage of time, and compelled viewers to reflect on their own experiences of love, loss, memory, and longing. The ephemeral qualities of the natural world were a recurring theme, with curtains made of silk scarves and stitched silk flowers on view, along with paradoxically strong spider webs woven from fine silver chains. At the same time, the formal concerns of post-minimalism emerged in Hodges’ wall sculptures with working light bulbs and graphic line drawings made with colored pencils, while canvases of cut mirrors encouraged a visual interplay between viewer and artist.