Ann Hamilton
as after is before
July 16–October 1, 2023Ann Hamilton, recognized for the sensory surround of her large-scale installations, performance collaborations, print projects, and public works makes work responsive to the architectures and social histories of the sites where they are made. Working with cloth, texts spoken and written, animals and people, her installations often weave relationships between language and material-based experiences. Hamilton’s project at ‘T’ Space will be the artist’s first exhibition in the New York area since her acclaimed 2012 Park Avenue Armory project: the event of a thread, and the opening of CHORUS, a permanent public project for the MTA Art in Transit program at WTC/Cortlandt Station in 2018.
The alphabetic footprint of ‘T’ Space, the resonance of its volume, the apertures of light animating its interior, and the surround of trees—are all conditions Hamilton responded to in conceiving her new work as after is before. Working with objects and images found and made—wool coats, sheep fleece, inscribed stone, and recorded sound—the project is, in her words:
as outside is to inside
as animal is to human
as stone is to words
as sound is to song
as image is to object
as made is to grown
In figuring the distance between cloven feet and biped toes, between the animal who makes its coat and the animal who grows one, between time measured in epochs and time measured in decades, between form shaped from heat and pressure and inscription carved by human hand, Hamilton’s project is sound touching at a distance. The elements draw upon her 2018 project Side-by-Side in Guimarães, Portugal, and the images of objects in her recent publication with Radius Books, SENSE.
Hamilton’s exhibition was on view during Upstate Art Weekend (July 21 – 24, 2023) and featured extended viewing hours and special programing with the artist, including improvisational whistling performances by the Moving Star Vocalists.
Please click here to view the full exhibition catalog.
Audio recording (above) is from a conversation with Ann Hamilton and Ann Lauterbach during the exhibition opening event.
This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
