Student showcase: Alexander Hawkins
Interviewed by Carlos Nunez.
Photographed by Ellie Briggs.
Alexander Hawkins is a fourth-year sculpture student. He has worked in a variety of arts-related jobs for nearly five years. Hawkins has been shown in duo shows and group exhibitions all over the world and also has worked with galleries in multiple online exhibitions over the course of 2020.
Hawkins founded The BealART artist talk in western Ontario in 2016. He is currently the organizer and curator of ART Talks, which takes emerging artists from the Atlanta region and gives them a platform to promote their work. Art Talks is currently held inside of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Digital Media Center theater located in Midtown Atlanta. Alexander is also both the director and founder of Sidecar Gallery in Midtown Atlanta, an inclusive experimental gallery meant to highlight emerging Southern artists.
ON SCULPTURES
I have been independent from mediums for five years. I have an issue with people who put themselves in boxes. I chose to be a sculpture major because sculpture is the most diverse medium in terms of materials and formats. The sculpture program at SCAD allows you to work with whatever you need: if you need to do an installation, it’s an installation, if you need to do a video, it’s a video. From a philosophical standpoint, I am typically working with an idea and then it forms itself onto a medium. I might get lucky and get five ideas that translate into five sculptures in a row but that hardly ever happens. I wish it did.
ON SIDECAR GALLERY AND ART EXHIBITIONS
This all started because I felt like there could be more spaces for SCAD students to showcase their work. Sidecar is an artist-run space for SCAD students to exhibit, curate and handle work. It offers the whole gallery experience as well as a great learning opportunity. There are so many things that are part of the art world besides creating work, like curating.
I think the role of the curator is changing. I don’t think you have to go to school to be a curator. What you need is to be able to look at art, understand it then put it all together in an idea and, more importantly, in a room.
I think of art in two ways: art for artists and art for the public. While the first kind is more academic and requires prior education, the second one is self-explanatory — you look at it and understand it. I would like to think that my artwork belongs in the second category, that it is accessible and viewers just need a title to understand it.
ON A CAREER IN THE ARTS
I see myself working in the arts for my whole life. We are in a weird time and I’m more of a make-your-own-path kind of guy. What are the odds you follow the path that someone else had and it goes the same way? None. Times change. Just look at the past 10 years with Instagram and all the communication tools we have now. Who knows where we’re going to be in 2 years with all the things that are going on in the world?
