All of the gifts given to me

 

NYT story about Roni Horn; photo credit Emiliano Granado

(from Rob Walker newsletter #64)about artist Roni Horn's collection of gifts given to her.

What’s the weirdest object in your studio?

When my niece was quite young, she made this olive tree out of pipe cleaners, wool and glue for me because I’d been away for six months and she was looking forward to seeing me. It’s just the ugliest thing you’ve ever seen, but I absolutely love it. And it appears in the “The Selected Gifts” (1974-present), which is a photo installation that I made by going through my life and pulling all of the gifts given to me.

What really jumped out was the part her answer that I’ve bolded — her documentation of “all of the gifts given to me.” (Here is her related book.)

But conducting an inventory of gifts received strikes me as really resonant right now. Stopping to observe and reflect on what we’ve been given — and by whom, and why we’ve held onto it — is not only a cue to feel gratitude, but a source of connection in a distinctly unconnected time. Maybe it’s even inspiration to reach out to a gift-giver we’re missing.

The occasion of the interview (which I went back and read all the way through) is Horn’s current project: the culmination of 14 months making one work per day — a stretch that overlapped with the onset of the pandemic. (Image above is from this project called "LOG (March 22, 2019-May 17, 2020")