#samhodge

Sam Hodge | Out of the House, 2023 | mixed media

Sam Hodge | Out of the House, 2023 | mixed media on paper

Sam Hodge | untitled | printmaking

Sam Hodge : A Series of Unfortunate Events

Sublime cracks spread across the surfaces of mobile phones form the starting point of Sam Hodge’s residency at Hack the Barbican. Accidents and their aesthetic manifestation have been a preoccupation for Hodge prior to her arrival within London’s infamous concrete maze. Her previous work engaged primarily with processes related to print, drawing and found objects. The past week has started a new engagement with the narrative surrounding the found object. To the side of the space Hodge is occupying, prints are displayed accompanied with typed anecdotes, describing how these particular lines originally became etched on the surface of the phone. Often both comic and tragic, a true element of pathos permeates the personal accounts. The actual prints remove the cracked surface from the phone as object and become recategorised as organic and ephemeral forms. Hodge trained as a scientist so an interest in chance and accidental selection stems from methods of enquiry that are distanced from the irrational systems of art practice.

The concept of hacking was something more problematic to define for Hodge, mainly because the word is so closely associated with the sphere of technology. However, for her it has come to mean inhabiting a space you aren’t supposed to be in. When entering the Barbican it took some time to feel at ease making work within a space that is so imbued with the atmosphere of institution. As Hodge began to gather damaged phones from staff and visitors, a sense of purpose came together with the making process. It was after this point that she began to feel that her ‘hack’ was in existence and happening. The idea of data gathering was also discussed as a type of hack. In terms of this particular project, visitors and staff have additionally been hacked as sources of data.

A Series of Unfortunate Events takes frames of reference from Leonardo's drawings, Rembrandt's drypoint etchings, Cornelia Parker's transformations of found objects and Sophie Calle's collections of incidents. Hodge has a background both in science and painting conservation and both these areas are significant influences on her wider practice. In terms of science, D'Arcy Thompson's On Growth and Form was mentioned as a reference and also ideas about Emergent Complexity. The preoccupation with the crack began whilst training as a conservator and informed the basis of research for her thesis. Except now, instead of being ‘fixed’ the crack is left to be explored through the printmaking process. Additionally scientific illustration and the relationship it promotes between understanding and the visual is also a continual source of interest for Hodge. There was further discussion around how artistic practice has recently taken on a pseudo scientific approach to curation. All of these ideas are tied into the space at the Barbican that has been hacked. It hasn’t just been occupied by a dweller who, perhaps under other terms wouldn’t necessarily be in residence. The dweller brings with them, as they hack, influences and references that extend beyond the space and indeed the very action of hacking. The hack is not empty, it comes ingrained with something ready to fill a space.