New York....Hauser & Wirth's stand for Frieze New York 2022 is dedicated to a solo presentation by Charles Gaines and features five unique, large-scale works from his acclaimed and ever-evolving 'Numbers and Trees' series, as well as a special limited-edition etching in support of 'Moving Chains,' the artist's upcoming public art project with Creative Time. In the new works, Gaines has reversed his signature process of layering for the first time since he began the Plexiglas series in 1986–printing enlarged photographic details of a tree on top of the Plexiglas instead of on the work's back panel. This new approach brings the tree's shadowy branches to the foreground and obscures the brightly coloured, numbered grid painted below it. The image of the tree has been central to the artist's work since the mid-1970s and his methodical examination of their form continues in this new iteration of the series, which is inspired by the immense trees he encountered during a trip to Dorset, England in early 2020.
Gaines begins each work by assigning it a distinctive colour and numbered grid–breaking down the composition into individual cells that reflect the full form of the tree depicted in the photograph. Created through carefully considered systems rather than through the artist's imagination or intuition, 'Numbers and Trees' calls into question both the objective nature of the trees and the subjective natural and material human actions that surround them. A pivotal figure in the field of conceptual art, esteemed CalArts educator, and influential member of the Los Angeles arts community, Gaines reflects on his process saying 'As I watch the systems and works evolve, and images being produced, I'm totally reminded that what I'm seeing is not a product of my intention but is a product of a system, and the system has a completely arbitrary relationship with the object.'
In addition to the five new Plexiglas gridworks on view, our presentation will include a limited-edition etching by Gaines titled Notes on Social Justice: Freedman's Monument (2021). Published by Hauser & Wirth Editions and printed by Paulson Fontaine Press, the work consists of a musical score accompanied by an excerpt from Frederick Douglass' 1876 speech given at the unveiling of the Freedman's Memorial in Washington, D.C. The print is a continuation of Gaines' 'Notes on Social Justice' series, in which the artist translates letters from different texts into musical notes using an intricate system. To produce the melody line, letters A through G are converted to their equivalent notes and the letter H is converted to B, while the remaining letters are translated as silent beats or rests. Chords are then attached to the melody by identifying the first letter in each word that is used in musical notation and converting that note to a major or minor chord. Gaines combines seemingly unrelated rules of language and music using an operationally random system, producing a linkage that is both meaningful and intentional. The system itself is a reflection on the unusual circumstances surrounding the memorial itself.
Proceeds from the sale of this print will directly benefit Gaines's Moving Chains, a public art project to be realised by Creative Time on New York's Governor's Island in 2022.