Precedent Research: the event of a thread

“the event of a thread” is by Ann Hamilton

This is an example post and presentation made by Olivia Robinson

Discussion:

Ann Hamilton created the event of a thread as an artist installation at the Armory in Manhattan from Dec. 2012 – Jan. 2013. Ann Hamilton was trained in textiles, which conceptually and materially have informed her work throughout her lengthy career as an artist. I want to read a few quotes for you to keep in mind as we look at this piece and some of the technical elements of it.

Ann Hamilton cites Anni Albers as an inspiration. Anni Albers was an historically important Bauhaus weaver and artist who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. In writing for Encyclopedia Britannica, Albers reflected that all weaving traces back to “the event of a thread.” All weaving is made up of the crossing of horizontal and vertical threads, and at their crossings are an intersection of meeting.

Ann Hamilton writes in her artist statement about this installation:

the event of a thread is made of many crossings of the near at hand and the far away: it is a body crossing space, is a writer’s hand crossing a sheet of paper, is a voice crossing a room in a paper bag, is a reader crossing with a page and with another reader, is listening crossing with speaking, is an inscription crossing a transmission, is a stylus crossing a groove, is a song crossing species, is the weightlessness of suspension crossing the calling of bell or bellows, is touch being touched in return. It is a flock of birds and a field of swings in motion. It is a particular point in space at an instant of time.
Ann hamilton

In an interview with Ian Forster for Art21, an excellent organization the documents artwork with interviews of the artists, Ann Hamilton makes an interesting observation. I am paraphrasing: That the installation became a kind of park for those that visited. Families would come for hours to play, people would lie under the cloth for extended periods of time looking up watching the movement. It was an intimate environment that allowed people to be alone with a larger group of people that created a sense of safety. Reflecting on that comment, I realize I felt that too when I visited the exhibition myself.

List of elements in the exhibition: