Tim Hawkinson: System Artist

This piece by Tim Hawkinson is fascinating on multiple levels. First, of course, it brings to mind the tormented erroneous byproduct of some diabolical scientific experiment. On a deeper level, though, Hawkinson is crafting organic and recognizable images—of hands and arms and skin—into a composite form that is neither natural nor inherently organic. The recognizable and predictable system of human anatomic structure, movement, and dexterity is manipulated and distorted into this foreign arrangement. Nonetheless, hands and arms are intrinsically associated with movement and intention—even consciousness; we can identify familiar placement of joints, and the ratios of decreasing digital diameter are not foreign—this creature feels plausible, if not alive. Thus the eye conceives of joints and limbs and sees locomotion in the infinitely branching grasp of this human fractal.