The central subject of Hawkinson’s work is often his own body, whose likeness he inflates, measures, weighs, reflects, and animates. Eschewing conventional self-portraits, Hawkinson uses his own physical form as a starting point for investigations into material, perception, and time. His analytical approach is often balanced by a suggestion of spirituality, as in Balloon Self-Portrait (1993, refabricated 2004), a life-size, inflated latex cast of the artist’s body that has been inflated and hovers over the gallery floor like an apparition. In other works, though, Hawkinson reduces his self to a simple machine effect, as in the kinetic sculpture Signature (1993), which ceaselessly inscribes the artist’s own signature.

Since the late 1980s, many of his important works in photography, drawing, printmaking and painting have been constructed from found objects and handcrafted materials and machines to create distinctive works that are personal yet seemingly scientific. Many of these materials are common or store-bought and endow his pieces with a mysterious sense of familiarity and accessibility, while also bringing a sense of inventiveness that inspires surprise, wonder, and even awe. Two prominent pieces on view that demonstrate this sense of inventiveness on both small and large scale are Feather (1997) and Spin Sink (1 Rev./100 Years) (1995). Feather (1997) is a tiny feather made from the artist’s own hair, while Spin Sink (1 Rev./100 Years) (1995), in contrast, is a 24-foot-long row of interlocking gears, the smallest of which is driven by a whirring toy motor that in turn drives each consecutively larger and more slowly turning gear up to the largest of all, which rotates approximately once every one hundred years. Several of Hawkinson’s other mechanical works function as eccentric musical instruments, whistling, honking, and clacking to the artist’s own scores or popular songs.