| Abstract |
The uncommon strength of Ann Hamilton's work resides in her ability to transform the relationships between the viewer and her work by engaging a set of correspondences which require a personal investment, in particular the existential anarchy at work in 'mattering'. Here matter and thought set a novel and innovative tone. First mounted in 1997 at the Musee d'art contemporain de Lyon, the installation devolves around an individual emerging from its core, visible only through a perforation in a vast, silken wave of orange material. The person is perched atop a mast, winding an inked blue ribbon around his fingers, seemingly anchored to the depths of the lower level beneath the physical floor. On the ground five peacocks circulate freely. The work also incorporates, in a low voice, a teacher and student performing singing excercises. Treating her subject matter with an impertubability of gesture, Hamilton guides us through a sensate and sensual realm. |