Ann Hamilton (Natalie check this out)

Figura - 2013

I came across Ann Hamilton while researching a project that she did in 2013, “Figura”, and started to read up on other project’s she’s done over the years.  A project that she worked on that really resonated with me was entitled: Cloth – A Commonplace.  Hamilton collected texts about fabric from literature with her followers and the public’s help – anyone could submit passages by mail or online.  There is a common use of cloth throughout the majority of Hamilton’s pieces.

“Cloth is the body’s first architecture; it protects, conceals and reveals; it carries a body’s weight, swaddles at birth, covers in sleep and in death. A patterned cloth symbolizes state or organization; a red cross stitched onto a white field is the universal sign of aid. A white cloth can be a ghost, a monster or a truce. John Constable described the sky in his paintings as a ‘white sheet drawn behind the objects.’ When we speak of its qualities, we speak of a cloth’s hand: we know it through touch. Cloth is the hand that is always touching. Its felt experience is evoked and described by the other hand that we always inhabit, that of language.”

This project of Cloth – A Commonplace, reminds me of a blog post Natalie made a few weeks ago where she really considered the use of cloth and the meaning behind it. 

Natalie - I think it would be interesting for you to read some of these passage about cloth in literature and look at Ann Hamilton’s use of cloth in her work to get some inspiration with your interests in the material!