Miguel Horn, With Stand | With Hold, 2024
With Stand | With Hold considers the longing for freedom and ponders importance of community in our present moment. Installed as a triptych, Horn’s central sculpture takes the form of the handheld torch from the Statue Of Liberty–a symbol originally displayed at the centennial exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia’s Parkside Neighborhood. Inspired by the fact that his studio sits just a few blocks from this original Centennial site, Horn has reinterpreted the iconic form of the torch by layering 390 individual acrylic pieces, constructed in his hallmark topographical method.
The work is mounted on a movable stand, inviting audiences to grasp the precariously positioned base. By “righting the torch” Horn hopes to give audiences “a symbolic agency to support our liberties and prevent their fall.”
These ideas are echoed by prints flanking the sculpture. Sets of hands, collected during workshops with children from the surrounding Parkside neighborhood, reach to support the torch as it appears to be teetering. Horn partnered with Spiral Q, a Philadelphia non-profit rooted in principles of accessibility, inclusion, self-determination, collaboration, sustainability and life-long learning. Through a combination of 3D scanning techniques, he seeks to "mimic the illusive and intangible form of the torch.”
Materials: Laser-cut acrylic, brass, steel base
Laser-etched archival inkjet pigment prints, graphite, color pencil
Miguel Horn, Liberty Poster, 2017
Horn crafted this poster for protests in early 2017. As the son of two immigrants, Horn sought to contrast the seemingly unamerican policies of the Trump administration by pairing the symbol of the Statue of Liberty with words recited daily in American public schools. When held in the bearer's right arm, it gives the illusion one is holding up the torch of liberty. This poster is one of Horn’s earliest experiments with the torch form.
Materials: Marker on posterboard
Credits
Project manager: Gina Ciralli
Miguel Antonio Horn is a visual artist from Philadelphia with Colombian and Venezuelan roots. He received a certificate in 2006 from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and apprenticed for five years with Mexican artist Javier Marin. He creates large-format sculptures using digital and analog processes in a variety of media. His artworks have been exhibited at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Tamaulipas, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, University of the Arts, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and as part of the Vancouver Biennale. He has several permanent public installations in the Philadelphia region, Canada and Mexico. He has received grants for workshops and artworks locally and internationally. From 2011 to 2019 he contributed to exhibitions programming and public outreach for the west Philadelphia artist-run Traction Company. He founded El Cubo in the Parkside neighborhood of Philadelphia in 2019 as a space for experimental projects and programming. He is the father of two young children who he raises with his wife and community in South Philadelphia.
Follow Miguel Antonio Horn on Instagram @miguelantoniohorn to learn more.
Lead support for the Monument Lab Artist Residency is provided by the William Penn Foundation, with additional support from the Ogilvie Family Foundation. In-kind support has been provided by Urban Art Projects (UAP). Programmatic partners include Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture and Spiral Q.
Image Credits
Miguel Horn, "With Stand | With Hold", 2024, & Liberty Poster, 2017, Paradigm Gallery, Philadelphia PA, Held: A Monument Lab Residency Exhibition (photo: Steve Weinik)