Maren Hassinger's Artwork EC

On September 27^th, our class got the opportunity to meet with artist Maren Hassinger and this was a special experience to me because I never had an actual artist explain their work to me through a detailed presentation before. The presentation embodied not only how her work came together in terms of material and strategy but other social purposes that led her to create. The theme in her work that stuck out to me was her use of the color pink.  I really liked her sculpture “Love” which consists of  pink plastic bags with notes about love inside each bag and the entire work is inflated with breath that people release. The pink plastic bags reflect this green light onto people and Maren shared how she enjoyed the contrast between the colors green and pink.

Love, 2005 by Maren Hassinger 

     My overall reaction to her presentation was puzzling because while her artwork (including the pink plastic bags, the New York Times newspaper shredding and wire rope) seemed a bit political and socially controversial, she basically stated it didn’t have any true meaning behind it. Maren used the word “literal” to describe why her work is the way it is. Essentially, she tried to say things just “are” without any explanation because they are there, “literally” just present in the moment. I was a bit confused by her explanation because I always thought every piece of art had a purpose or an explanation behind it but after her presentation I began to wonder if there truly is a need for it. Art can just happen. Art can just be whatever it wants to be for no reason at all.

If I could encounter Maren Hassinger again I would ask if her art has a certain audience. During her presentation she showed us a picture of a group of women of color in front of her sculpture "Love" but Maren didn't really go much in depth as to why that exact group of women meant something to her and her career in art. Her art work also connects to what we have learned in class because like many female artists, she only received recognition for her work later on in her career. Maren Hassinger is also a very resourceful artist like many of the ones we reviewed throughout our lectures.