Ann Hamilton: The Picture Is Still

The installations created by American artist Ann Hamilton are as atmospheric as they are intellectually complex, as grandiose and whimsical as they are serious and political. Whether she is employing tons of work clothes, a herd of ostriches, thousands of dollars' worth of pennies, kilometers of typewriter ribbon, loaves and loaves of bread dough, or teams of volunteer workers, Hamilton's process-oriented, site-specific environments incorporate viewers, teaching them to use their senses anew. In one of her most recent and spectacular works, which gives its name to this book, the artist inhabited a former torpedo factory at Yokosuka--a symbol-laden place in Japan, consecutively used by domestic and American armies for extensive military bases--and hung charcoal rods from the ceiling on strings of different length. The result was a space oppressed by the heavy shadows of the dense, blackened mass of dead matter that hung from above, filled with an abysmal sadness that conjured up the darker chapters of the history of Japanese-American relations.