Of course, the keyword in the title of Jacob Hashimoto’s latest site-specific work is “gas”. Gas is an element that spreads through space and disperses its molecules in an unpredictable way. In any case, it modifies the surrounding space, even when it does not saturate it and make it completely different by substituting itself for, or aggregating with, the pre-existent atmosphere. It is a “volatile” element: in other words, it is in constantly and impalpably changing, exactly like the work of this American artist who, ever since he began making large-scale site-specific works, has always staged huge dispersions of hundreds and hundreds (in this case almost 7,500) of his singular modules which we might well call, by analogy, “molecules” (Leibniz’s word “monads” would perhaps be too much…). The result is a kind of multi-colored “mold” and, at the same time, an aerial accretion that marks the boundaries of the space that confines it, as though these were completely provisory limits that contain it only for the moment. And then, these molecules are laid out according to internal resemblances: color with color, form with form, pattern with pattern, blades of grass with blades of grass…
The result is a kind of strange landscape. However, we do not know if it is natural, vegetable or human because the sense of dispersion – that is, the general unpredictability of its dissemination – is superior to that of the artist’s rational ordering. And even though this is objectively impossible – given that there exists an artist who also happens to be very patient and meticulous during the hanging, and there is also a squad of assistants who follow his precise instructions – the immediate visual and emotive outcome suggests a kind of “natural self-disposition” of the elements, one whose compositional heart we must discover, as when we analyze a complete ecosystem while living inside it. So this is why the work becomes a grandiose metaphor for every type of “system” in which each individual element, even if only because it is nearby, influences the other in building a harmony. Why harmony and not dissonance? Because each building, each composition, even the most unlikely or dangerous, has a design, an overall vision, that in embryo is already to be found in its smallest constitutive elements, even if the “bricks” in this case are kites. (Marco Meneguzzo, 2013)