Finger Gloves Possibly 1972 - 2000

How can the body be used as an artistic medium? What is the relationship between art and the body? These two questions were key to the work of Rebecca Horn. Horn (1944-2024) was a German visual artist who came to prominence in the early 1980s. She often worked in the genre of body art, but also created film, installation, sculpture, and performance pieces. 🖼️ This monotone photograph showcases Horn’s ‘Finger Gloves’, which she created in 1972. The gloves feature extended fingers of five metres long, attached to her wrists with black straps. Created using wooden sticks wrapped in black fabric, each wooden finger can be controlled with a small movement of the actual finger. Horn first imagined this artwork in 1968, and produced many preparatory drawings before eventually creating it. The huge gloves are sculptural in scale, yet lightweight. According to the artist, ‘the finger gloves are made from such a light material, that I can move my fingers without effort. I feel, touch, grasp with them, yet keep a certain distance from the objects that I touch. The lever action of the lengthened fingers intensifies the sense of touch in the hand. I feel myself touching, see myself grasping, and control the distance between myself and the objects.’ Rebecca Horn produced many bodily extension artworks, focussing on several body parts from the face and head to the arms. These pieces highlight the limitations of the natural human body, displaying a renewed focus on physical space. Her explorations of the human body are especially poignant when considering Horn’s own personal biography: she spent her early twenties in hospital, being treated for severe lung poisoning. She developed lung poisoning after working with fibreglass during art classes in Hamburg. 🫁 In this photograph, we see the Finger Gloves in action as Horn attempts to pick up a white plastic bag. She holds the exaggerated gloves away from her body and leans towards the bag, intense in her concentration. The level of distance between the artist and the object that she intends to touch creates a sense of struggle and difficulty. This raises themes of control and powerlessness.