Acclaimed Installation-Artist Ann Hamilton to Give Presentation at the University of Virginia

January 24, 2000 -- Artist Ann Hamilton, recipient of a 1993 MacArthur Foundation grant, will give a presentation of her work on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 3:30 p.m. in Campbell Hall at the University of Virginia.

Hamilton, the 1999 U.S. representative to the 48th Venice Biennale exhibition of international contemporary art, will show a video of the installation she created for the U.S. pavilion there. The work entitled "Myein" from the Greek root word that means mystery, deals with a combination of perceptions and thoughts, a theme that runs through her work and will be the topic of her lecture.

Hamilton will also give a discussion of her work at noon on Friday, Jan. 28 in Campbell Hall, Room 158. In her Biennale installation, Hamilton incorporates a glass wall outside the building which distorts the view of the U.S pavilion. A poem about human struggles and sufferings, by Charles Reznikoff rendered in Braille on the white walled interior catches the drifting fine red powder that floats down from the ceiling, making the words visible but still mysterious.

In the background, a whispered recording of Hamilton's voice can be heard reciting words about slavery and healing taken from Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address. Critics have praised her work as both cerebral and sensory at the same time.

Judith Dobrzynski, in her spring 1999 New York Times article on Hamilton said, "The installation deals with how we know what we know and what we blind ourselves to, how the invisible affects us and how the visible can be veiled, how we learn from seeing and touchingŠ. It is about looking very hard at the things we humans do to one another."

The presentation is sponsored by the Forum for Contemporary Thought at U.Va.

For more informatin contact Joshua Dienstag at (804) 924-3664 or jfdienstag@virginia.edu.

CONTACT: Jane Ford, (804) 924-4298.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: please contact the Office of University Relations at (804) 924-7116. Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.
SOURCE: U.Va. News Services

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