Blanket of Branches — Maren Hassinger

Coinciding with Hassinger’s largest career retrospective to date, Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing at The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the artist resurrects the archival installation Blanket of Branches. Hassinger introduces nature into the traditional gallery setting by suspending a web of branches from the gallery ceiling, accompanied by Hassinger's signature Vessels wrought in wire rope.

Made in tribute to nature’s wild beauty, Hassinger simultaneously acknowledges the respite and contemplation one achieves when in communion with nature, and its unpredictable volatility. Across Hassinger’s practice, the artist seeks to remind the viewer of humanity’s enduring connection to the natural world, and the necessary symbiosis we share.

About the artist

MAREN HASSINGER (b. 1947) has built an interdisciplinary practice that articulates the relationship between nature and humanity. Carefully choosing materials for their innate characteristics, Hassinger has explored the subject of movement, family, love, nature, environment, consumerism, identity, and race. The artist uses her materials to mimic nature, whether bundling it to resemble a monolithic sheaf of wheat or planting it in cement to create an industrial garden.