RONI HORN

Underpinning her wider practice, drawing is a primary activity that has been integral to Horn’s oeuvre for nearly 40 years. Featuring throughout the works on view, the phrase ‘I am paralyzed with hope’ comes from a monologue by the stand-up comedian Maria Bamford, which Horn describes as a ‘poignant connection to our time with regards to politics and the environment and now, of course, in relation to the pandemic.’ Bamford’s quote was first used by the artist in her 2021 work ‘LOG (22 March 2019 – 17 May 2020),’ a large-scale installation comprised of 406 individual works on paper that function as a record of the world around her, and evolved into the Seizure of Hope series on view.

Evoking water damaged ink, the text is at once legible and blurred. Her cast-glass sculpture ‘Untitled (“What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?”)’ (2022) similarly balances solidity and fluidity, its glossy top recalling the crystal-clear surface of an undisturbed pool of water. Water is a constant theme for Horn, stating she is ‘fascinated by this idea of water as a form of perpetual relation, not so much a substance but a thing whose identity was based on its relation to other things [...] Rather than an object, water becomes a metaphor for consciousness—of time, of physicality, of the human condition.’—‘Roni Horn aka Roni Horn’ (Steidl & Partners, 2009)

The exhibition is accompanied by the limited-edition title ‘Seizure of Hope’ (2026) by Hauser & Wirth Publishers, an artist’s book that reproduces her drawings in precise detail.

Image: Roni Horn, Seizure of Hope (71) (detail), 2025 © Roni Horn. Photo: Ron Amstutz