Ann Hamilton has two pieces installed in the Carnegie International. I was fortunate enough to view and study both of these works when I visited the exhibit November 10th. The first installation was entitled welle which was also referenced as the wailing wall. The piece itself was a very cold, yet inanimate and ordinary, wall that weeps beads of water not completely visible at first. The first time that I looked at welle I didn't even notice the tears falling along the wall. Only at a closer glance did I see these drops of water coming from the wall. I felt as though she meant the viewer to see her architecture as a feeling, if not living, membrane. The second work of Ann Hamilton's was a video named A,B,C. I thought of it as the fingerprint video, because all that you could see was this finger moving along the screen slowly erasing letters. When I first saw it I tried to figure out what the fingerprint was erasing only to discover that it was the alphabet. I really enjoyed watching this video progress; it was very simplistic, but I felt that it left itself open to many different interpretations. I thought of a lot of different meanings that the piece could have, but the one that stuck with me the most was a representation of censorship and frailty. After seeing Hamilton's work I felt the need to go back to the websites that I had researched before we went to the exhibit and found many works of hers that intrigued me as well, making me a new fan of her work.

This is a page in the Art In Context website. It can be used as a general reference point and starting page. It includes links to selected past exhibitions and museums, galleries, etc.

Ann Hamilton, welle, 1998 (detail)

    Marnie | November 19, 1999

    Grade 12 | North Allegheny Senior High School | Wexford, PA

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