Hannah+Jacobs+Ann+Hamilton

Hannah Jacobs FA071 __Ann Hamilton__ Ann Hamilton is a visionary installation artist who harnesses tangible and intangible tools to create a sensory experience. Not only are her pieces visually interesting; they also delve into many intellectual, cultural and historical realms, which makes her work moving and important to her viewers. She was born in Ohio in 1956 and after attending the University of Kansas and Yale University to perfect her craft; she had a long teaching career at the University of Santa Barbara. She has since moved back to Ohio to focus on constructing art. She has received many awards and honors for her accomplishments, including Heinz Award (2008), United States Artists Fellowship (2007), Progressive Architecture Citation Award (1997), NEA Visual Arts Fellowship (1993), MacArthur Fellowship (1993) and the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1989).Her working materials range from textiles and installations, to sculpture, photography and printmaking and she has addressed topics like slavery and oppression. A main goal of hers is to link society to history and she often draws the relationship between verbal and visual language. (ahstudio). In her piece //Myein// (1999) she exhibits the use of both of these elements. The piece consists of a white room with white plastered dots of Braille letters coded onto the white walls. Due to the lack of contrast of color, obviously to the naked eye, it would be hard to decipher a message presented in this way. This led to the addition of the continual dropping of a fuchsia powder onto the walls; separating the Braille and making it clear to read. In this way, language and specifically a form of language that relies on touch as a sense was brought into a visual realm and transformed. To take it a step further, the coding on the walls was the words of Abraham Lincoln’s second Inaugural address in phonetic code. There was also a spoken version of the phonetic code presented softly in a whisper in the background. In this case, speech is concealed by sound and touch and represents this time in American History in a unique and original way. (pbs). [|Myein Images] Another piece that vividly represents history is //indigo blue// (1991). This piece, set in an old warehouse in South Carolina consisted of a pile of 14,000 pounds of carefully pressed and layered blue-collar work uniforms representing the start of the era when the signature color of the worker, indigo blue, became a part of society. The large and overtaking presence of the clothing was a striking symbol on its own of the working class people in a factory such as the one it was set in. However, what was interesting was her ability to take it a step further. Obscured to the viewer by the massive pile of clothing was a worker, using a pink pearl eraser and saliva, sat and erased slim blue books, back to front, at a table borrowed from the central market, which formerly housed one of Charleson's pre civil war slave markets. The eraser remnants were left to gather over the duration of the piece. This was a way to take the visual power of the clothing and put in a context and an action in a subtle way. (ahstudio). [|Creating Indigo Blue] Ann Hamilton is an inspirational artist because she takes spaces and transforms them with installations that seek to change the perspective and really impact the people who walk through them. They have a strong point of view and social implications. Her pieces are visual stunning and are only strengthened by their messages.

References: [|Gallery Paul Eanglim] [|PBS] [|art 21] [|Ann Hamilton Studio]