Ann Hamilton

(bearings), 1996

Artist
Ann Hamilton
Title
(bearings)
Dimensions and medium
Silk organza curtains, metal railings, motors, and steel rods and rings, Variable dimensions
Artwork description
Ann Hamilton expresses her intuitions about space and movement by harnessing the evocative power of textiles, a poetic and tactile material used to great effect in her monumental installation (bearings). Suspended from two motorized, circular rails attached to the gallery’s ceiling, large twin curtains spin side by side, stop, then turn in the opposite direction. Pivoting on their central axis in a kind of dance that echoes the spellbinding movements of whirling dervishes, these gigantic “skirts” expand and contract in response to the momentum generated by the motorized system. As a symbol of skin or clothing, fabric embodies a kind of boundary, a protective membrane that separates the self from the outside world, the contents of the container. The viewer who ventures through the kinetic curtain’s opening is separated from the public space. They enter an intimate universe in which their experience immediately becomes personal. In the gallery, the “skirts” widen and intrude into the “public” area, strongly asserting their presence. The notion of a duality between two worlds is heightened by Hamilton’s use of black exterior curtains and white interior ones. (bearings) is part of a series of “curtain” type installations Hamilton began in 1994 with her piece mneme, followed by volumen and lumen (1995), and filament (1996).

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