An exhibition of nine new works by Tim Hawkinson made in 2008 and 2009 from various materials ranging from eggshells and feathers to bondo and bronze will be on view at PaceWildenstein, 32 East 57th Street, New York City, from May 8 through July 25, 2009.

Tim Hawkinson’s idiosyncratic creations are meditations on nature, machines, mortality, the body and human consciousness. Since the 1980s, the artist has used common found and store-bought materials, handcrafted objects, and machines to shift familiar subject matter off-kilter, creating visual conundrums imbued with deeper meaning. His inventive works range in size from monumental kinetic and sound-producing sculptures to almost microscopic pieces created from such unassuming materials as fingernail clippings and eggshells. Driven by ideas, materials, and an interest in transformation, Hawkinson continues to create unlikely and thoughtprovoking associations by transforming common materials into works of art.

The idea for Sherpa (2008), a life-sized (52" x 77-1/2" x 31-1/2") single cylinder two-stroke engine motorcycle constructed out of eight varieties of feathers, originated from a single ostrich plume which suggested the form of a Harley Davidson gas tank to Hawkinson. Hawkinson searched for suitable feathers for cables, gears, and other details—down to the kickstand, handlebars, and headlights. He eventually selected ostrich, peacock, pheasant, turkey goose, rooster, marabou and guinea fowl.

The three smallest works in the exhibition are made from eggshells. Bather (2009), measuring 7" x 3-1/2"” x 3- 1/12", alludes to the iconic Venus of Willendorf (c. 24,000-22,000 B.C.), the limestone artifact considered to be one of the earliest images of the human body. And in Tuffet (2009), where the spherical shape of the hollow egg is also preserved, Hawkinson subverts the form and function of a traditionally cushion-covered low stool.

The pockmarked surface of Point (2009), consisting of fragments of shattered eggshells, resembles the fossil of a prehistoric arrowhead. Underlying each of these pieces is an essential dichotomy—the spherical nature of the form, and the completeness and solidity which that implies, coexists alongside the fragility of the eggshell itself.

Hawkinson’s works confront not only the palpable, corporeal aspects of human nature; he has also created pieces which explore the metaphysical facets of human consciousness and the yearning to rationalize and map the intangible forces governing the universe: Hyperbolic Plane (2009), a 44" x 44" x 44" hanging sculpture of aluminum mesh, aluminum tape, and bondo, and Lorenz Attractor (2009), a 92" x 60" x 24" allusion to Edward N. Lorenz’s visualizations of deterministic chaos based on a mathematical model of the atmosphere constructed out of a aluminum tape, neoprene, pvc, and wire will also be on view.

Other new works in the exhibition include Skinned Knee (2009), a sculpture of an oversized skinned knee and ripped blue jeans rendered five feet in height, Doy (2008), a six foot tall bronze sculpture of a boy, whose oversized hand melts into the muzzle of a dog, and Leviathon (2009), a 7' 2-1/2" x 10' x 2' 9-1/2" bronze “fossil” of a monstrous invented sea creature, upon which closer inspection reveals vertebrae composed of a line of figures rowing; its ribs, the oars.