After Gretchen Hupfel: Mourning & Merging, Recovery & Return
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Reckitt, Helena. 2024. 'After Gretchen Hupfel: Mourning & Merging, Recovery & Return'. In: Re-Evaluation in Feminism(s) and Contemporary Art. Middlesex University, United Kingdom 13 September 2024. [Conference or Workshop Item]
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Abstract or Description
Gretchen Hupfel (b. 1963, Wilmington, DE, d. 2002, Atlanta, GA) was a photo-based conceptual artist who took her own life at the age of thirty-nine. In the prelude to Hupfel’s death her spare, witty art had started to receive unprecedented attention. A solo show at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center was reviewed in Artforum, Atlanta Magazine named her ‘Best All-Round Artist of 2022,’ & she gained representation at Marcia Wood Gallery. Yet despite this outward success Hupfel’s personal life was in crisis. Struggling with mental illness, she experienced auditory hallucinations that threatened her grasp on reality & prompted self-destructive behaviour.
For the ten months leading up to her death, Helena Reckitt was Hupfel’s girlfriend. Reckitt accompanied Hupfel to galleries & dyke bars, therapy appointments & psychiatric wards. Although Reckitt knew how ill her girlfriend was, the violence & abruptness of her death were a shock. Deprived of a gradual or ‘natural’ end to their relationship, Reckitt found it hard to let Hupfel go. She also struggled to find a form in which to remember her. A novel she wrote inspired by their relationship failed. Plans for a retrospective of Hupfel’s works petered out.
In this highly personal talk Reckitt relates her difficulties grappling with the aftermath of Hupfel’s death & her art’s stalled potential. She relates her questions on how to ‘rehabilitate’ Hupfel’s art to the recent upsurge of critical & curatorial work devoted to under & unknown women artists. Given current awareness about mental illness, would emphasising Hupfel’s schizophrenia contribute to her posthumous recognition? Or would it over-determine readings of her art? Given that Hupfel worked in the ‘provincial’ art context of Atlanta, how likely is it that a contemporary audience for her art could be found? Reckitt looks at artists of the generation before Hupfel, Felix Gonzalez Torres & Sarah Pucill, who give queer expression to mourning & loss. Relating how they return to images & tropes made with & about their dead lovers, she reflects on the urge to touch & connect across time.
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Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
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| Event Location: |
Middlesex University, United Kingdom |
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| Date range: |
13 September 2024 |
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| Item ID: |
37545 |
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| Date Deposited: |
18 Sep 2024 08:39 |
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| Last Modified: |
18 Sep 2024 08:39 |
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