Book release: Art Notes, Art
"For a period in the late seventies and early eighties, artist Cynthia Hawkins experimented with wired sculptures, documenting her thinking around this work in a journal. As she writes in the foreword to its recently published version, she 'always intend[ed] to publish this manuscript, I carried it with me through every move, every life transition.' The published writings include Hawkins’s small sketches, her notes working out form and structure, and references to her influences and crit groups. But, most importantly, the publication serves as a crucial record of this body of work, since the sculptures are no longer extant. 'I made the decision to let them go because I was concerned about the artistic integrity of the malleable wire forms,' she explains in the foreword. 'It only recently occurred to me that this manuscript is an act of recovery, a project to bring into the world that which has been lost.' This book brings her Art Notes, Art into the world as a typed book, each page undated save for the year. What comes across is Hawkins’s dedication to art making and willingness to experiment." Megan N. Liberty, Brooklyn Rail, March 2025.
Art Notes, Art, ed. Ananth Shastri and published by the Center for Arts Research and Alliances, is available here: https://bookstore.cara-nyc.org/cynthia-hawkins-art-notes-art.html