My thoughts on Richard Hawkins: Third Mind at the AIC

With a practice encompassing multiple, diverse approaches, including painting, sculpture, correspondence, collage and cultural appropriation, Richard Hawkins has created a body of work that represents active voyeurism in juxtaposition with the inherent ambiguities that underlie highly literate gay male desire. Since the late 1980s, when he first began to actively present his work in shows in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Hawkins has challenged the viewer’s notions of context and experience. Through engagement with the ephemera of queer culture, Thai sex tourism, ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, 19th century French Decadent painting and literature, and pop cultural references, Hawkins has pushed us to reconsider our ideas of sensuality and desire, and to embrace what is frequently left under wraps, both physically and psychologically.

Hawkins’ first American museum survey, curated by Lisa Dorin, proves a wonderful introduction to the broad spectrum of his practice. Across multiple rooms in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Modern Wing, and Ryerson and Burnham Libraries, viewers are treated to a range of seductions that ultimately serve to “shake up” both the personal experience of viewing and the relative quiet of the museum setting. This is quite liberating. Hawkins’ varied works engage psychologically and physically at multiple levels, challenging both the intellect and the libido, often simultaneously. As well, the initial discomfort and even embarrassment one first encounters with his work subsides with time spent taking it in, with a mostly tender experience of relief. Ultimately, as Hawkins himself strives to reconstruct ideas about art practice and its references, so to does the viewer, by joining him in first confronting and then ultimately entering the unfolding enjoyment and subtle satisfaction that is inherent in the creation of each piece. Leaving the exhibit is as if leaving a deeply satisfying conversation; you feel both challenged and surprisingly open to a broader set of concerns.