Hand Not Hand

Hills Snyder

Exhibition: Jun 28 – Sep 1, 1996


Hand Not Hand features approximately 14 works installed in The Hudson (Show)Room and peripheral spaces. Works include two large scale, multi-paneled drawings of an atomic device and a ‘59 Cadillac, as well as several Plexiglas and birch plywood objects. Some of the work could be described as “semi-site.”

The title of the exhibition refers to the issue of hand, or the absence of it, in contemporary art. The artist recognizes that hand has been asked to leave, but has invited it back. In this way “hand” is a stand in for the artist–there, but not there; at the center of things, but completely marginal at the same time.

Book of the Dead (Opening night)

Artist

Hills Snyder

San Antonio, Texas, USA

Hills Snyder explores history and myth through installations that playfully combine arcane and pop cultural references. Snyder’s propensity for punning, coupled with his interest in means of making sense (and nonsense), infuse his work with insights that transcend everyday ironies to touch on universal themes.
Evoking associations that are as often literary, philosophical, or religious as they are political or art historical, Snyder’s projects expose hidden meanings in familiar images. Intrigued by the post-9/11 proliferation of patriotic symbols, Snyder spliced the striped portions of three US flags to create Ridge and Furrow (2003), whose title is an etymological play on the word delirium (from the Latin delirare, literally, “to go off the furrow”). His earlier Back to Basics (2001), a red, yellow, and blue acrylic guillotine, injects menacing undertones into modernism’s palette of primary colors. Sometimes cryptic but always good-humored, Snyder’s works generate narratives that ricochet off one another like reflections in a hall of mirrors.
Born in Lubbock, TX, in 1950, Hills Snyder currently resides in Helotes. Solo shows include Fresh Up Club, Austin, TX (2004); Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, TX (2001); and Casino Luxembourg, Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (1998). Group shows include McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX (2004); Pearl, London, England (2001); and Lombard-Fried Fine Arts, New York, NY (2000).

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