Photo collage Paola Rigamonti

Experiencing Semantics with Roni Horn

This essay is a very personal account of how the writer has experienced Roni Horn’s approach to art and to identity through the lens of semantics. Its declared subjectivity makes it open to debate, and it shuns away from the pretentiousness of revealing an encompassing truth about her artistic endeavour, let alone about the human being behind it. It is simply yet another perspective on this beguiling artist.
Horn is an American artist of world renown. Throughout her lasting career she has been experimenting with a variety of materials including glass, metals, plastic and rubber (Fig.2-5). Her practice encompasses, amongst other media, drawing (Fig.18), both sculpture and photographic installations (Fig. 2-6) and art performance (Fig.8). Over the years she has developed a close intimacy with Iceland, a second home and a powerful source of inspiration. Identity is one of the themes that prevails in her artistic discourse.