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It's actually kind of odd that it took four editions to get to a female artist. I'm usually much more drawn to them, as I have lots of feminine elements in my own work. Guess I just wasn't feeling inspired until I saw this piece about Ann Hamilton on art:21, a really great PBS series about artists. Ann has a background in sculpture and textiles, two things very near and dear to my heart right now. Unfortunately, there's just not very many good images of her work online.






One of my favorite pieces is called "toothpick suit", which is a man's thrift store suit covered in toothpicks, painted black except for the tip. She wore it for an exhibition, and was photographed in it. I love the weirdness and humor of it.

She's also done some work that involves trading functions of different sense organs in the body. For example, she's found a way to make a pinhole camera out of her mouth, and takes photos of her subjects by standing in front of them with her mouth open for the proper number of seconds to get the right exposure. The resulting photos are slightly blurry, but recognizable, and the shape of the mouth opening creates an eye-like shape in the final print.



What I love most is how process-oriented her pieces are, and the wide range of forms they take. I've found, for myself, that I just want to try everything, in all disciplines. Often they blend and influence each other, giving me ideas for more creative and interesting ways of working in the future. What I find difficult about the art world is that galleries want to see a cohesive body of work, where all the things you make are similar to each other, and that's just not how I roll. So it's edifying to see someone working this same way and finding success.


For more, you can hear an interview with her at Studio 360

Labels: artistsiheart, fiber