Ann Hamilton’s installations are complexly structured environments designed to provoke somatic responses and wide-ranging metaphorical associations. For tropos, Hamilton replaced the gallery’s transparent windows with translucent glass and covered the floor with a vast pelt of interwoven animal hair. Stitched together in undulating swirls, this peculiar and fantastic hide created a new topography. Integrated into this environment stood a small metal table and a stool, where a seated figure methodically burned out the text of an old book with a soldering iron, releasing a steady stream of smoke that wisped up from the pages. Visitors were invited to traverse the space, engaging with the pelt as they navigated its irregularities.

Ann Hamilton was born in Lima, Ohio, in 1956. She lives and works in Ohio.

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