Artist-in-Residence

Jim Hodges

Jim Hodges, You
Jim Hodges, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, You, 1997. Silk flowers and thread. 216 x 192 inches. Photo credit: Carlos Avendaño.

Introduced to FWM in 1994 by his friend and colleague Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Hodges completed Every Touch in 1995. This piece marks the first in his now well-known series of large, sculptural floral veils. The creative process involved selecting silk flowers, which were then deconstructed, ironed flat, and pinned to paper backing before being stitched together at the edge, where one petal touched the next. After the backing was removed, a lace-like cascade of petals and leaves remained, fragile yet powerfully seductive in its simplicity and beauty.

The bright and multi-colored Every Touch is a meditation on the many lives that brought the sculpture into being. Its title suggests the artist’s acknowledgment of the numerous people who literally touched this piece during the course of its making—from the workers who fabricated the flowers, to the artist and his collaborative team of staff and students at The Fabric Workshop and Museum who made the richly-textured finished cloth through their careful handwork.

Hodges returned to FWM in 1997 to create a second piece, entitled You. It differs from Every Touch in its striking, monochromatic color scheme—it is nearly all white with just a few splashes of color—and its conceptual intention. While Every Touch references the makers, You is made for everyone who views this piece.

Artist Bio

American, born 1957. Lives in New York, NY. 

Jim Hodges is a sculptor and installation artist who has become known for work that is sometimes monumental in scale and made from silver chain, broken mirrors or flower petals—ephemeral materials that offer symbolic associations in addition to their aesthetic attributes. Born in Spokane, Washington, Hodges received his BFA from Fort Wright College in 1980 and his MFA from the Pratt Institute in 1986. His work can be found in numerous public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, IL; the Detroit Institute of Arts, MI; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA. Hodges has exhibited across the United States and internationally in shows at the Aspen Art Museum, CO; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; and the Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. In 2013, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Walker Art Center co-organized Give More Than You Take, a retrospective of Hodges’ career that also traveled to the ICA Boston and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Alpert Award in the Arts, the Alpert Ucross Prize, and the Washington State Arts Commission.