Review

Untitled piece from "Sanctum", Mixed Media and Found Objects.

Jim Hesse
Sanctum

11 a.m.-3 p.m.

{:m Momentum Gallery
2014 Main Street
Kansas City, MO
816.560.1450

Hours: First Fridays, 6-10 p.m., Monday 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and by appointment
Runs through: Sept. 30

Gallery site: http://khesse.chartwellkc.net/getagent/Pages.php?Page=565593

Jim Hesse's current show at {:m Momentum Gallery is ahead of its time.

A month ahead, to be precise. Then again, perhaps it would be a cliché to show work this ... well, spooky ... in October.

Hesse describes Sanctum as an auspicious arrangement of ovum confined in found material from deserted dwellings -- in other words, eggs found in empty (haunted, perhaps?) houses. He echoes the theme in the pieces themselves, showing off his finds in birdhouse-like structures built from weathered and battered wood and metal.

Eggs shouldn't be creepy, right? After all, one of the reasons they're rolled out at Easter is that they symbolize new life and/or rebirth. Then again, they can have their sinister side ... depending on what's hatching out of them (as John Hurt's character in Alien discovered all too well).

It's the former connotation, though, that drives the haunting aspect of Hesse's show.

Eggs are cradles of life, after all ... and if one regards life as sacred, then the title Sanctum takes on an even deeper meaning. To the see the shells emptied, surrounded by rust and peeling paint, is to be reminded that all beginnings, no matter how hopeful, end in entropy.

(There are several unbroken -- and hence unhatched -- eggs on display; for some, the beginning and the end are almost simultaneous.)

Sobering though Hesse's work might be, though, it is also lovely in its own macabre way. Hesse has a good eye for light, shadow and texture -- and that last element, especially, would not be nearly as striking if he used smooth wood and shiny new nails.

Sanctum is, in the end, a nod to both birth and death, which can itself be seen as a rebirth into a new existence. Hesse's work underscores the point that while life (and our own endeavors) might be fleeting blinks in the grand span of time, we can still take those moments and use them to create beauty.

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