“Fleeting Revelations, The Demise of Duration in Medardo Rosso’s Wax Sculpture” in Ephemeral Bodies: Wax Sculpture and the Human Figure, R. Panzanelli, ed., Getty Research Institute Issues and Debates Book Series (Los Angeles: J.P. Getty Trust, 2008): 131-153.
An essay that explores the connotations of wax in Medardo Rosso’s sculpture. Hecker contends that in Rosso’s nearly-dissolving sculptures, wax embodies dissolution of flesh and form, as well as softness, and morbidity, in defiance of the conventional purity and durability of the plastic arts. Hecker sees wax as a material that forms a dialectic between maker and material, between the sculptor’s identity as plastic form-giver and the work’s own material capacity to disintegrate.