In Memoriam: Barbara Rose Haum

The world seems so muted and muffled with the passing of an artist who has touched and transformed many lives.

Barbara Rose Haum, a German born artist in New York City, explored the performative aspect of language. Her work revealed how values are constructed through text, through ritualistic repetition.

On March 25, 2008, Barbara Rose Haum succumbed to the leukemia that she had battled for more than a year.

We celebrate Dr. Barbara Rose Haum, whose work as a collaborative artist and Internet2 creator, enriched our lives many times over. She was at her best when crossing unknown terrain, where her originality and zest for life shaped a new sensibility. Dr Haum was on the faculty at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She was forging new territory with her remarkable Internet presence with works such as those from Torn Textbooks that included Trepassing Boundaries, 54 Weeks, Lunar Performances, and Archaeology of a Narrative.

In recent times, Dr. Haum had begun to explore Internet2 as a new medium. Her work in this area was formative, promising, and original. In 2005, she produced Trespassing Boundaries, a seminal work that led to further development as text, images, and music on the Internet. She had begun to explore I2 through scholarly writings and presentations. Her insights concerning this medium was an inspiration to her students and colleagues.

Quoting from her on-line biography:

Barbara Haum's work attempts to transform traditional readings of texts through intertwining of contemporary narratives found in newspaper clippings with fairy tales, myths and the bible. Integral to her research is the struggle to decentralize the authority of the text and to express a desire to bring "nourishment" to language in order to open up the text to gendered and cross-cultural experiences. Her installations are clusters of ordinary objects such as spoons, ink wells, goose feathers, soap dishes and spooIs of thread in combination with newspaper clippings, cookbooks, photographs of the Torah. These elements coexist in an open field with no boundaries, thus inviting viewers to question their meaning and purpose and allowing for new meanings to emerge.

Friends and admirers can sign a guestbook that has been created in honor of Dr. Haum. We share our deepest sorrow with her husband, Henri Lustiger-Thaler and her daughter Talia. We have lost a true original.