Ann Hamilton was born
in 1956 in Lima, Ohio. She trained in
textile
design at the University of Kansas, and later received an MFA from
Yale University. While her degree is in sculpture, textiles and
fabric have continued to be an important part of her work, which
includes
installations,
photographs, videos,
performances,
and objects. For example, following graduation she made “Toothpick
Suit,” for which she layered thousands of toothpicks in porcupine
fashion along a suit of clothes that she then wore and photographed.
Hamilton’s sensual installations often combine evocative soundtracks
with cloth, filmed footage, organic material, and objects such as
tables. She is as interested in verbal and written language as she
is in the visual, and sees the two as related and interchangeable.
In recent work, she has experimented with exchanging one sense organ
for another—the mouth and fingers, for example, become like
an eye with the addition of miniature pinhole cameras. In 1993,
she won a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. As the 1999 American
representative at the Venice Biennale, she addressed topics of slavery
and oppression in American society with an installation that used
walls embossed with Braille. The embossed Braille caught a dazzling
red powder as it slid down from above, literally making language
visible. After teaching at the University of California at Santa
Barbara from 1985 to 1991, she returned to Ohio, where she lives
and works.
For additional biographic & bibliographic information:
Ann Hamilton's Web Site | Sean Kelly Gallery, New York |
