Magdalena Abakanowicz – “Manus” (Hand-Like Trees)

About the artist

Magdalena Abakanowicz was a Polish sculptor and fiber artist. The artist is mainly known for her metal craftsmanship and large sculptures but she herself preferred to work with a lot of soft tissues and complex cloths connecting her more to her works through touch. The sculptures tend to mimic figures in her works, with many pieces containing large and or multiple figures within the piece. The piece that started her career off was known as Abakans, made from three-dimensional textiles which “she became intimately associated with.” Dealt with a lot of organic figures, especially pertaining to the human body seen in Alteracje/ Alterations, which consists of twelve hollowed out course sackcloth human bodies, held together by resin.

History Behind the Piece

Magdalena Abakanowicz

The 90s, the time in which Abakanowicz finished Manus, was the decade in which seemed to shift the world, devastation and technological advancements within the country and internationally have lead artists today to be expressive in their work. What kinds of events were happening in the world, how do these events have a connection to Magdalena Abakanowicz and her creation of Manus in the 90s? Locally, from the home country of Abakanowicz in Poland, in 1990 the German-Polish border treaty which reaffirmed the borders of German and Poland which had been an ongoing controversy since 1945 was signed. In 1991 the Warsaw pact had come to an end once Germany left the pact (Timeline of Polish History). Regionally, within the United States, there were major events that although occurred in the US were something that everyone was affected by. In 1994 Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in Seattle, now to be over one trillion dollars, nobody at the time thought much of the company. In 94 there was also an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.7 which caused the collapsing of building, the death of 57 people in Northridge, California costing the state $20 billion dollars in damages (History.com Editors). Nationally the United States was transiting from an agricultural economy to an industrialized economy in the 90s which helped the creation of Amazon. During the Gulf War, the economic situation was dire: the American economy was in recession, marked by a lack of cash-flow in the financial markets. The demand for the art market become unimportant. Prices of art went down and some museums had no choice but to close (Anderson). Internationally what most would call the greatest thing to happen, the world would definitely not be the same with it out, is the airing of the world wide web to the world by Tim Berners-Lee. The Rise of the internet gave an opportunity for people to show their work to a wider public, increase in people going to museums, and digital expression becoming a thing (Anderson). Globalization became a big thing, the United States was at war with Iraq of ver the control of oil, and World War 2 was nearing its end, leaving behind a wake of disaster around the world. Disasters that have left people scarred to this day and left in fear while others use the emotion as an inspiration to create and express themselves in an artistic/political matter. In politics Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 90, the world trade center was bombed in 1993 and William “Bill” Clinton was elected president of the US in 93. One of the most eye-opening political/global events was the famine in Sudan in which photographer Kevin Carter brought into reality to the globe with an image of a vulture stalking a starving child in 93. An image no one can unsee brought attention to the event and was said to be the cause of the unfortunate death of Carter (Velimirović). We also have the racial riots of 92 in Los Angeles when Rodney King was beaten badly by police officers while resisting arrest, police were unaware of someone filming and yet was found not guilty (Sandusky). In pop culture we see devastation brought to the music society with the death of Kurt Cobain in 94, the Nintendo was released in 91, Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed in the knee at the 94 winter Olympics by her competitor, Nancy Harding’s, boyfriend. There are a lot of ways these troubled and evolutionary times influenced the creation of Manus; what was most important was that the world was still reeling from WWll and destruction left from its aftermath. People all around the world were deeply affected by the war such as our artist Magdalena Abakanowicz from Poland. The war destroyed much of the land especially the forest, killing tons of trees. The destruction of land caused by mankind really stayed with the artist leading her to create Manus and her collection “she made them as a protest against the inhumanity of war (Milicic, 17). She wanted to create a piece that would interact and bring attention to the environment. The demise of the forest in her hometown made her want to create pieces that in some way represent the trees she so much loved and lost after the wake of WWII. According to Vladimir Millici, the “manus is one of such sculptures-mediators, whose primary function is to warn us of the sad state of nature” (14). The destruction of mankind resonated with the artist so much that she wanted to create sculptures that spoke of that truth, the truth of humans killing nature. The war was the foundation from which for what was to come in the future such rising tensions in politics and in society, art became a way for your voice to be heard. The invention of the internet led to further progressions in technology and consumerism, such as Amazon being founded in 1994. The rise in consumerism was leading the economy to transition from agricultural to a consumerist economy. The internet also paved the way for how an artist can communicate and create art.

“A symbol unifying man and nature.” – Abakanowicz

 

 

Manus #2 (Our Interpretation)

Initially, we took multiple pictures from different angles of our sculpture, capturing both minute details as well as the surroundings in order to achieve a better understanding of its placement/contribution on campus. Through further research, we found that Abakanowicz wanted to bring together both man-made and organic forms of life into one final form. The sculpture is a unifying symbol that intertwines the modern destructive world with the ever growing natural forces. Once we had obtained the pictures we needed, we proceeded to collage them together in order to recreate what we interpreted of Magdalena Abakanowicz sculpture. We overlapped and cropped pictures taken at different angles and proximities of the sculpture in order to form a much larger picture of the entire sculpture. The result was our “version” or interpretation of the sculpture, with the use of a collage, showcasing our different perspectives. We included the images we thought were important and represented the piece well, with pictures pertaining to the texture, the opening, the street in the background, and the surrounding area full of healthy grass and trees.

 

Sources

Authors

Johana Ocampo (Research and writeup, some collage)

Dina Mendoza (Collage of photos and research)

Danil Sonjaya (Admin and photography, some research)