Sometimes the hardest parts of our lives yield the most fruitful art. Just ask Camille Henrot . “Looking at the family, for me, is a way to address political and community ideas and issues,” Henrot told Artspace last year. “The foundational experiences of childhood influence all of our later experiences in life. When we feel a sense of powerlessness politically, or in our relationship to technology and the media, there is an innate recall to the powerlessness we felt as children - having to bow to, or rebel against, the authority of our parents in the same way.”
Camille Henrot - photo by Maria Fonti
Those very same impulses were on display at Hauser & Wirth’s hugely impressive stand (E-5) at Frieze LA a few days ago, when the gallery devoted its booth at the fair to Henrot’s work. Hauser & Wirth showed new works drawn from Henrot’s series, System of Attachment, Wet Job, and Dos and Don’ts; the fair exhibition was the artist’s first project with Hauser & Wirth since joining the gallery last fall .
CAMILLE HENROT - Dos and Don'ts - In the Smoking Room , 2021
© Camille Henrot. Image courtesy of Hauser & Wirth
“Inspired by literature, second-hand marketplaces, poetry, cartoons, social media, self-help culture, and the banality of everyday life, Henrot’s work captures the complexity of living as both private individuals and global citizens in an increasingly connected and over-stimulated world,” explained the gallery. “Henrot’s practice moves seamlessly between film, painting, drawing, bronze, sculpture, and installation. She draws upon references from literature, psychoanalysis, social media, cultural anthropology, self-help, and the banality of everyday life in order to question what it means to be both a private individual and a global subject.”
CAMILLE HENROT -
Mother Tongue,
2020
Watercolor on paper / Aquarelle sur papier 24 x 18 inches Courtesy of the artist . Digital archival print on Epson Hot Press Natural 330g/m2 paper - signed and numbered by the Artist on front - 24.00 x 18.00 in - 61.0 x 45.7 cm - Edition of 50 $1,500
That questioning brought high praise. Frieze itself singled out Henrot as one of “the most influential and thought-provoking artists working today,” in its coverage of the fair, which ran 17-20 Feburary at 9900 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills.
There is still time to secure an edition sourced from the series Henrot displayed. Her print Mother Tongue , forms part of the artist’s System of Attachment series. The work was created exclusively to benefit the LA institution, MOCA, through a unique Artspace editions initiative, with proceeds from the sale of Mother Tongue supporting programming at the museum. You can read Henrot herself on the work here ; take a closer look at it here ; and browse further works by Camille Henrot here.
