One of the crowd
Magdalena Abakanowicz
1992/Bronze/Poland
Abakanowicz was born in Poland in 1930. In the late 1960s, she created the huge, organic-shaped works "Abakan" made from woven hemp. As a fiber Artist, she established an original style that went beyond the boundaries of traditional tapestry. Her "Crowd" series from the late 1980s took the human body as its subject, and featured a number of headless figures covered in hemp, with only one side of the body shaped and the back hollow, evoking the anxiety and loneliness of oppressed humans. This work was cast in bronze, with the rough surface of the hemp as it is. The work conveys the indomitable will of humans to survive, even though their individuality has been stripped away and they are buried in the crowd.
