Roni Horn Shows 76 Hope Drawings at Hauser and Wirth
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- Roni Horn, 70, was removed from a business-class US-to-Germany flight a few weeks ago when a male steward had the plane stopped after she refused to adjust her seat further, prompting her to cancel the first leg of her European trip
- "Seizure of Hope" at Hauser and Wirth — Horn's first London solo exhibition in a decade — features 76 drawings in "very, very soft" graphite and wax pencil, each repeating the handwritten phrase "I am paralysed with hope"
- Horn first encountered the phrase in comedian Maria Bamford's 2020 routine and became attached to it during what she calls "the political downfall of America," describing the feeling as "an endless silent scream"
- The show's glass sculpture, titled "What Happens to the Hole When the Cheese is Gone?" after Bertolt Brecht, is a clear cast cube that shifts with light and shadow while glass — technically a liquid — appears solid
- The phrase previously anchored LOG, a 14-month conceptual diary Horn made during lockdown, and titled her 2023 Centro Botin exhibition in Spain
Why it matters: Horn's first London solo in a decade extends a single sentence she attached to in 2020 into 76 new drawings alongside her signature cast-glass cubes. She explicitly frames the work as a response to what she calls the "political downfall of America" and environmental contamination including PFAS found in rainwater — making the show a rare major statement from a living artist working at the intersection of personal grief, political anxiety, and ecological crisis.
