Jacob Hashimoto

This weekend I hope to make it to the Mary Boone Gallery to catch the Jacob Hashimoto exhibit. It opened on January 5th (guess I missed that) and will be running through February 10th. Mary Boone Gallery, 745 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

I already have plans to catch the premiere of MoMA’s newly restored release of David Lynch’s Eraserhead.

I also have a birthday party for my cat, that I must attend.

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COMMENTS: I finally made it to the Jacob Hashimoto show on February 3rd. I went by myself. 5th Avenue on the East side has a very different vibe than the West Chelsea gallery scene that I had just departed from. Ensconced on the fourth floor of 745 5th Avenue, the Mary Boone Gallery is an impeccable space, and showed Hashimoto’s work well.

These refined pieces of paper and wood kite construction have the appearance of thousands of man hours of delicate precision craftsmanship. While they are exquisite to the eye, they also project a sense of temporariness that, to me, made them at once also saddening. In all of their toiled intricacy, I couldn’t help but visualize in my mind a time lapse of their disintegration. I can imagine even a modern established museum being put to serious task keeping all the miniature components of these works free of dust, and cleaning them without causing damage. This sadness was heightened by the fact that they chose not to produce an exhibition catalog, leaving very little after the fact to document that this event ever took place or that these works ever existed. On my departure I had a parting conversation with Seth Sgorbati who assured me that, in spite of the works delicate appearance, the pieces were more durable than appearance would suggest, and that the works were coated with some kind of product to protect them from collecting dust. With all his best intentions, I’m still skeptical. Furthermore, when I inquired about the exhibition card/pamphlet, he informed me that they ran out almost immediately, that the small document was a very big hit from the start. A good sign that an exhibition book would have been a wise business decision, sure to fly off the shelves just as fast.

The on site installation was tranquil, and all of the work very moving. I look forward to seeing more of Jacob Hashimoto’s work.

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NOTE: I am pleased now to learn that the Italian gallery, Studio La Città has four different exhibition catalogs in stock from their past shows of Hashimoto’s work. I have inquired with them about purchasing the catalog from September, 2006, shown here.