They are visual and conceptual conundrums: a fragile, organic thing mimicked by a sturdy machine made one; an animal’s functional nest made from a human’s adornment. N. Blake, Jim Hodges: 1991, 1992, New York, 2007 Spider’s webs do not announce their presence.Their genius, in fact, lies in their subtlety: iridescent, fragile, and geometrically complex, these beautiful little traps live in the margins of their environment-tucked away in corners, hidden between branches-a woven surprise alternately dazzling and deadly.The American sculptor Jim Hodges weaves spider webs from silver and brass chain links, rewarding the engaged observer by installing them in the corners, on the ceilings and on the hidden peripheries of gallery spaces to “produce little shocks of surprise and pleasure.They make the case for a poetry which is latent in everyday reality,” (E. Heartney, “Jim Hodges at CRG,” Art in America, New York, November, 1998). Once stumbled upon, Hodges’ webs entice and ensnare.The glittering surface of Angels Voices,1993 masks a host of fascinating contradictions: the delicate form of the web belies the tensile strength of the chain, organic becomes man-made; nature’s beautiful deception rendered as glittering ornament suggestive of life and death, artful self-perpetuation and venomous deceit. “There is sexual desire, anonymity, violence, exhilaration and disregard... connection, humility, adhesion. Enticement and trapping, reflection and adornment, community and isolation: all of these are elements in Hodges’ emotional alchemy.... Hodges dramatizes the poignant moments in which our hopes and desires lead us to the ambiguous embrace of the tenderest traps,” (N. Blake, Jim Hodges: 1991, 1992, New York, 2007).