Jim Hodges: you will see these things

American conceptual artist Jim Hodges has exhibited widely throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is perhaps best known for his use of diverse, often commonplace materials including silk flowers, photographs, paper napkins, broken glass and mirrors, which he often weaves into sculpture-based visual narratives reflecting on the passage of time.

Realizing his opportunity to communicate with a vast number of people when approached about creating the lift ticket for the 2008/2009 Aspen Skiing Company and AAM partnership, Hodges spent a great deal of time thinking about what should be said.

Like most great wisdom, “Give More Than You Take” is a simultaneously simple and complex idea. The text references philanthropy, environmental awareness, corporate responsibility, Buddhist practice, and the overall concept of just being a good person and doing the right thing. The words Hodges chose for the lift ticket can be seen as a subtle suggestion as well as a relevant question we can pose to ourselves as we enjoy the bountiful plenty that the magical mountains of Aspen provide. “Do I give more than I take?”

Hodges lives and works in New York City, and has a history of creating text-based work. In 2004 Hodges accepted the Worcester Art Museum's (MA) Wall at WAM commission, for which he collaborated with representatives from all member-nations of the United Nations who each wrote down the phrase "don't be afraid" in their native language. Their resulting contributions were then combined into a composition by Hodges and printed as a billboard.

Hodges’ work is featured in the permanent collections of The Dallas Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA) Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, and The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., among others, as well as The Musée National Centre Pompidou, Paris, and The Tate in London. Hodges was featured in the AAM’s group exhibition Like color in pictures and was recipient of the Aspen Art Museum’s “Aspen Award for Art” in 2007. In addition to his forthcoming solo exhibition at the AAM, 2009 will include solo exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, touring to the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, and the Camden Arts Centre, London. Recent solo exhibitions also include CRG Gallery, New York (2008); Look and See, Creative Time Commission at the Ritz Carlton Plaza, Battery Park, New York, NY, (2005); and, Jim Hodges: This line to you, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea (CGAC), Santiago de Compostello, Spain (2004).

Jim Hodges: you will see these things
Kurator: Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson