Thursday, February 19, 2009

Ann Hamilton at the Guggenheim


via bionicgrrrl flickr

Ann Hamilton's site-specific piece, "Human Carriage," whirls around the curved walls of the Guggenheim Museum and is truly mystifying. I hardly even noticed their current show, "The Third Mind" because I was too busy following Hamilton's sculpture around in circles, waiting to hear the bells ring!

From the LA Times: "Throughout the day, a set of Tibetan hand cymbals, suspended in a carriage of silk cloth, will travel down a pipe hung from the curved balustrade -- creating a ringing heard throughout the museum. When they reach the lobby, a 'reader' at an upper level will load a stack of books -- cut guillotine style and glued and tied together in bundles -- onto a vertical pulley, which lifts the bells back to the top of the ramp. The work is an expression of the often invisible process of cultural transmission and knowledge. 'You never know how a sound dissipates,' Hamilton says, 'when it arrives and where it is carried.'"

I love her.