Hope Sandrow

Hope Sandrow (born 1951) is an American conceptual artist who works in the mediums of photography, video, mixed media, installation, sculpture, new media, performance, and social practice.

Early life and education Sandrow was born in Philadelphia, PA and grew up in Southern (Camden and Cherry Hill) New Jersey, attending Beaver College, Drexel University and Philadelphia College of Art. Her family emigrated from Russia to Philadelphia at the end of the 19th century.

Sandrow joined the emerging environmental movement as a high school freshman with the encouragement of her maternal grandparents, Pearl and Morris Liebman who nominated Sandrow as the inaugural "Miss Cleaner Air Week" held in recognition of the Air Quality Control Act.

Sandrow's art practice often parallels her life experiences. This is the conceptual context that is explored in all her work including open air studio spacetime.

Early Influences Marcel Duchamp was an early major influence, stemming from Sandrow viewing his works at The Philadelphia Museum of Art from the time she was a young child. Duchamp's way of working with "what is", chance, readymades and his intrigue with the concept of depicting the fourth dimension in art.

Sandrow also found inspiration in the work of Earth Artists, Nancy Holt, Ana Mendieta, Robert Smithson and James Turrell; her friend and mentor Feminist Artist, Nancy Spero and her husband artist, Leon Golub, and East Village colleagues.

Career

Sandrow creates installations and works of art that integrate site, history, culture, and social practices.

Her photographic and installation work(s), Memories Spaces Time, Hope & Fear, and water life, the latter, shown at The Whitney Museum (Philip Morris)

In the 1980s, Sandrow was associated with the East Village scene that included colleagues, Keiko Bonk, Jimmy DeSana, Mike Bidlo, Luis Frangella, Futura 2000, Judy Glantzman, Keith Haring, Peter Hujar, Gracie Mansion, Carlo McCormick, Nicolas Mouferrage, Walter Robinson, Sur Rodney Sur, David Wojnarowicz, Rhonda Zwillinger.

Some of the early series that Sandrow produced in the 1980s included, Men On The Streets, Back on the Streets, Hope & Fear, In Response(mounted) were shown at the Hirshhorn Museum, Gracie Mansion Gallery, Zero1 (Los Angeles) and included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and later received the Skowhegan Governor's Award. In 2022, the works of art from that project were presented by The New York Historical, in its exhibition, Art for Change: The Artist and Homeless Collaborative, and included Sandrow's Men On The Streets.

In 2006, while on a walk in the woods of Shinnecock Hills, she encountered a Padovana rooster, later named Shinnecock for the location where they met. He then followed her home.

That same year, 2006, Alanna Heiss, Director and Chief Curator of PS1, commissioned Sandrow to create the installation, Godt Tegn Open Air Studio Shinnecock Hills spacetime. The installation featured a selection of large-scale panoramas documenting the life and travels of Shinnecock, the young rooster who followed her home, as well as the land that Sandrow campaigned to preserve in Shinnecock Hills.

From 2006 onward, Sandrow was commissioned and presented her work at The Museum of Art and Design, NYC; The New York Historical, NYC; The Contemporary Museum Baltimore, MD; The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; The Southampton Historical Museum, The US Embassy in Jakarta, and LongHouse Reserve among others.

Sandrow's work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The Corcoran Collection at the National Gallery of Art, The Parrish Art Museum, The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, The New York Historical, and other public and private collections including Eli Broad Foundation, Agnes Gund, Dakis Joannou, Vera List, Geoffrey Hendricks, Sur Rodney Sur, Henry Buhl Foundation, Jeffrey Deitch and Dorothy Lichtenstein.

Group exhibitions: 1980s

The Famous Show, curated by Gracie Mansion, Gracie Mansion Gallery NYC (1992) A Flag for the Eighties, curated by Nicolas Mouferrege, P.S.1, Long Island City, NY (1992) Spring Street Pier, curated by David Wojnarowicz and Mike Bidlo NYC (1983) Limbo, curated by Walter Robinson and Carlo McCormick, MOMA/PS1 (1984) New Galleries of the Lower East Side, curated by Helene Winer, Artists Space, NYC The New Portrait, curated by Jeffrey Deitch, P.S.1 Long Island City, NY (1984) New Galleries of the Lower East Side, curated by Helene Winer, Artists Space, NYC (1984) Climbing:The East Village, curated by Carlo McCormick, Hal Bromm Gallery (1984) Neo York curated by Phyllis Plous and Mary Looker, University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara California (1984) Directions Biennial Toward the Baroque, curated by Phyllis Rosenzweig, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC. Sandrow, Stella, Morris and Turrell (1986) The East Village curated by Richard Martin, Harold Koda, Laura Sindebrand, Fashion Institute of Technology, NYC.(1986) Biennial: Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art (1986); Group UFO (photography) curated by Sur Rodney Sur, Gracie Mansion Gallery NYC (1987) Contemporary Diptychs: The New Shape of Content curated by Roni Feinstein, Whitney Museum of American Art at Equitable Center NYC and Fairfield, CT.(1987) Large As Life: Contemporary Photography curated by Kellie Jones, Henry Street Settlement, NYC; Jamaica Arts Center (1987) Arrangements for the Camera: A View of Contemporary Photography, Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland (1987) Photography on the Edge, curated by Curtis Carter, Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Mil, WI (1988) The Photography of Invention: American Pictures of the 1980s, curated by Joshua P. Smith, National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC. Travels to: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Walker Arts Center, Minnesota (1989); Sequence (Con)Sequence: Photographic Multiples of the Eighties, curated by Julia Ballerini Blum Art Institute, Bard College, New York (1989) East Village USA, curated by Dan Cameron, New Museum (2005) Subsequently, she became a member of Visual Aids, Coalition for Freedom of Expression, Women's Action Coalition (WAC). She founded her own public art project The Artist & Homeless Collaborative Sandrow has shared her hens' eggs with members of The Retreat (2010-2016) and since the pandemic distributed over 13,000 eggs to the Shinnecock Food Pantry a consideration of Sandrow's project Nourishing Reciprocity. In 2017, she founded and now chairs the Town of Southampton Arts and Culture Committee.

Major works

Men on The Streets (1978–1984) Sandrow's first photographic series, is a series of street performances realized as photographic stills—the silver prints were handprinted by the artist. In 2019, the work was included Nicolas Mouferrage's solo exhibition at The Queens Museum. Sandrow's series explores gender discrimination by employing role reversal by returning the gaze towards men. As a response to The Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress on March 22, 1972, Sandrow photographed primarily near Wall Street, the World Trade Center and in downtown Los Angeles investigating the parameters of "the personal" in relationship to the universal. Employing role reversal, i.e., challenging the notion of a woman walking alone on city streets, playing the "bad" girl, Sandrow propositioned male strangers to pose for portraits (not sex), for them to be looked at rather than being the looker. The body of work was first exhibited in the group show Six Young Photographers at the Soho Aldrich Center for the Visual Artists, NYC. and first exhibited at Gracie Mansion Gallery.

Museum Studies: Hope & Fear (1986) Hope & Fear is a black and white photographic series shown at the Hirshhorn Museum in the exhibition, Toward the Baroque, as part of the Hirshhorn Biennial: Directions 1986 with artists, Frank Stella, James Turrell, Robert Morris and Hope Sandrow.

In response (mounted) (1989–1991) Marcel Duchamp's Étant Donnés is the art historical and personal reference for this series. Duchamp's seminal work was installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1969. The naked woman pictured in Duchamp's surreal tableau assumed personal context months later in Sandrow's own life, when behind a closed door Sandrow was similarly poised but on the examining table of an assailant. In 1970, from that same Museum's windows, Sandrow enjoyed views of the inaugural Earth Week celebration and attended events in Fairmount Park. As a high school freshman, Sandrow joined the emerging environmental movement in which her maternal grandmother and father involved her.

Sandrow's mounted response, was exhibited in a solo show at Gracie Mansion Gallery in 1989 and Grey Art Gallery in 1991. The work addressed the enshrouded secrecy of violence against women.

Water Life (1998) Water Life an installation of photographic works, sculpture and sound installation that was shown at The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1998 as a solo exhibition. The collection of shells revived childhood memories of Marcel Duchamp's (1935) Rotoreliefs (Optical Disc) prints at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; science and planetarium exhibits down the street at the Franklin Institute.

Time (space) (1998–2001) Time (space) is a multi media installation composed of large-scale photographic panoramas, video, and an online video stream with a dedicated website during travel. The work was created onsite the Indonesian islands of Bali, Flores, Komodo and Rinja, and was a commission for the traveling exhibition Response to place: Place Matters at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 2001, opening on 9/11/2001 and curated by Andy Grundberg.

The Other Side of the Rainbow (1992) The Other Side of the Rainbow is a collaborative project between Sandrow and artist, Robin Tewes. The topic is sexual abuse: which includes verbal and physical harassment and rape, covering the spectrum from being treated in a condescending manner to physical violation. This project reaches out to include people from, diverse racial, class and cultural backgrounds, living and working in universities, prisons, homes, streets, institutions et al. During the solicitation of testimonies on-site presentations, participants select and write on the color-coded index card that relates to the age they were at the time they were sexually abused.

Flag for the Nineties (1992) A mixed media work composed of color polaroids, staples and a worn American flag that Sandrow was given by the Dept of Veteran Affairs marking her great Uncle Bill's Zucker grave in Arlington Cemetery. It was a private commission by Vera List in 1992, and curated by The New School curator, Kathleen Goncharov "to document the diverse cultures of the New York Art Community." Sandrow selected colleagues to sit for portraits realized as color polaroids; then peeled from the film's base and stapled together juxtaposed to the worn red, white and blue fabric. The work includes images of Will Guy, Thelma Golden, Komar & Melamid, Candida Alvarez, Patrick O’Connell, Ida Panicelli, Billie Tsien, Lucy Lippard, Adal Maldonado, Maria Elena Gonzalez, Louise Bourgeois, Vito Acconci, Sur Rodney Sur, Martha Wilson, Maura Sheehan, Sam Reveles, Kay Walkingstick, Thomas Sokolowski, and Fred Wilson. The work was never exhibited.

Material Matters (1995) Material Matters was an invitational project conceived of and organized by Hope Sandrow at the Brooklyn Anchorage (Creative Time, director Anne Pasternak) that included artists: Terry Adkins; Jane Dickson; Robin Kahn; Susan Leopold; Christian Marclay; Matthew McCaslin; Sara Pasti & Artist / Neighbors; Hope Sandrow; Glenn Seator, and John Yau.

Untitled observations spacetime (2001–2007) Untitled observations spacetime is a series created from 2001–2007 is an investigation into the nuances of seeing and knowing through the process of collecting images, thoughts, and experiences in the wake of "911" and follow Sandrow's recovery from sexual assault. Exhibited in the form of panoramas and singularly focused still and video works at multiple sites on Eastern Long Island where the landscape reflects that of Manhattan a century ago. The series represents the natural history of everyday life in which notions of beauty, art, science, and myth are investigated, such as how images produced by technology (the camera and telescope) are mirroring our world and evoking profoundly different ideas than pictorial representations made by hand and from memory.

Sandrow's process mirrors the practice of Paduan Galileo Galilei use of a camera obscura to project telescopic images traced on paper -Sidereus Nuncias. This was a method that led to his challenging 2000 years of Aristotelian thinking: discovery of the Moon's rocky surface. A contemporary influence and inspiration for Sandrow's work is Nancy Holt, an artist whose work, including Holes of Light and Locators, "provided a new lens for observing natural phenomena."

Viewing primary elements of the visible world places observations and beliefs in specific cultural (matriarchy or patriarchy) and science-based contexts; time frames of lunar or solar calendars. Live streams position viewers’ memories as having been "firsthand" as shown in the collective experience of "911." "Looking to the skies" to foretell a lunar eclipse is now "looking online" at NASA "Index To Five Millennium Catalog of Lunar Eclipses." "Mapping" has a new meaning when applied to global technology as this information revolution profoundly affects the world in all dimensions

(Re)collecting an American's Dream (READ) (2006–2008) Explores conflicting issues of preservation and development in the mediums of photography, video, mixed media, and social practice (2006 - 2008). The subject is the historic 13-acre estate Gissa-Bu (circa 1930) where Sandrow followed the cockerel, Shinnecock on March 30, 2006, across the road days after the land's trees were clear-cut. Two exhibits, "Godt Tegn" MoMA - PS1 Sandrow has stated that her "intention is to present the natural history of everyday life, while regenerating discourse on nature, art, culture, and history."

The Sky is Falling (2006) The Sky is Falling is a photographic series commissioned by art philanthropist, Agnes Gund are four structures created for Sandrow's flock one of which, Coop LeWitt East for their delicious eggs.Coop LeWitt East

Other On The Road collaborations included, Sur Rodney Sur's, Free Advice, (2008), program, an experimental series of artist-driven projects. With multidisciplinary components, from performances and temporary installations to participatory events and screenings, Genius Loci inhabited the Museum from Sunday, November 4 through January 2013. Also on view were two new museum acquisitions of Sandrow's photographs.

Sandrow, whose practice often involves intensive historical research into site and place, presents works that evoke symbols of the past, new life, and good fortune, corresponding to the many cultures that have enlivened the history of the East End of Long Island.

Portrait of a Chicken as an Egg (Candled) within A Golden Rectangle (2017) This photographic series by Sandrow of portraits of a chicken as an egg came about as an unexpected discovery in August 2017—when an egg is posed upright while candled resembles moons, planets, and stars. The subjects of Sandrow's study at the time were also by chance, when in 2006 her path crossed with the white Padovana cockerel in wooded Shinnecock Hills.

The penetrating light of "candling" reveals the condition of the egg's air cell, yolk, and albumen. That enables observation of embryonic development inside the shell.

Observational findings drawn in dirt (2017) This is series of larg-scale photographic prints of more than forty drawings made in the dirt made by Sandrow's chickens.

The Fabric of Time and Space Space Time (2018) A permanent installation commission created by Sandrow for the new US Embassy Jakarta (2018), from Art in Embassies Chief Curator Virginia L. Shore and Curator Claire D’Alba. This work was a creative engagement that returned Sandrow to the other side of the world: the Pacific Islands and Peoples of Bali, Flores, and Komodo. Following in the steps of her (1998) travels for the project/installation TIME(space) commissioned by Independent Curator, Andy Grundberg for the traveling exhibition In Response to Place: Place Matters (2001–2006).

Collaborations

Sandrow's collaborations with artist colleagues and the public in art works include, The Artist & Homeless Collaborative and Cira Pascual Marquina (2005); open air studio Shinnecock Hills spacetime, (Re)collecting An American's Dream (READ, 2006–2008), On the Road Free Advice with Sur Rodney Sur (2008), On the Road Headstand with Geoff Hendricks (2008), On the Road Enigma of a Litmus Test - coop d’etat with Caterina Verde and Pasha Radetzki (2010); Genius Loci, Gallus Gallus with Ulf Skogsbergh (2015 ongoing); Women's Study Room (2020 ongoing); Nourishing Reciprocity with Kelly, Jeremy and Denise Silva Dennis, Brianna Hernandez (2022 ongoing); I won't carry your water I'm not your Succulent'' with Brianna Hernandez (2023).

Collections Sandrow's work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Corcoran Collection at the National Gallery of Art, The Parrish Art Museum, The New York Historical, The Houston Museum of Fine Art and other public and private collections including Eli Broad Foundation, Agnes Gund, Vera List, Geoffrey Hendricks, Sur Rodney Sur, Henry Buhl Foundation, Jeffrey Deitch and Dorothy Lichtenstein.

Personal life

Sandrow lives and works in Shinnecock Hills, New York with her husband, the artist and composer, Ulf Skogsbergh. They lived in NYC (Manhattan) from 1984 to 2006.