Hans Haacke is a German-born artist currently residing in New York City. His work is frequently a commentary on social, political and economic systems, such as his work highlighting GENCOR’s treatment of its on strike gold and coal miners, where they were hit with tear gas, firearms and dogs, evicted from their quarters, and in many cases fired from their jobs. Haacke’s response was to create a corporate-looking display that appears to be a display from a trade show or some high profile event which, on closer inspection, depicts the affected black workers and tells their story.

He also makes commentary on the art world with work that directly references the likes of Duchamp and Magritte, particularly referencing Duchamp ‘ready-mades’. Fully aware that the ready-makes are now revered objects in their own right, Haacke also references Duchamp’s focus on the power of context and the way he upended universal assumptions.

I am particularly interested in Haacke’s work from the 1960s and early 1970s where he brought different plants into the gallery environment. I used grass as a photographic receptor for Assignment five and am considering ways in which the concept could be developed further. Haacke was interested in plants as a way of exploring unregulated growth and in how artworks can evolve and grow naturally. The work is allowed to grow its own way independent of the artist and gives the art a random, constantly shifting factor, thus marking the passage of time. This is an area that appeals to me and is something I would like to explore in my future work.

Hans Haacke 1967 exhibition at MIT

The heyday of Hans Haacke – The Boston Globe [Accewssed 15th March 2021]

Grasskamp, W. Nesbit, M. Bird, J (2004) Hans Haacke. New York: Phaidon