Ann Hamilton's Tactile Image Exhibition at Cleveland Museum of Art Explores Embodied Cognition

Ann Hamilton's solo exhibition 'Still and Moving: The Tactile Image' runs through April 19 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The show features a retrospective of her photography from the 1980s onward, video works from the turn of the century, and a new sound piece performed by whistler Emily Eagen. Hamilton scanned antique figurines from the museum's collection and displayed them at billboard scale, preserving digital glitches. The artist, born in Lima, Ohio and raised in Columbus, has lived in Ohio since 1992 after time in California. Her studio is located in a former auto-body shop in Columbus. Hamilton emphasizes that 'We think through our bodies,' citing Frank R. Wilson's book 'The Hand' about the appendage's role in intelligence evolution. She recently spoke at the Cleveland Museum of Art and will depart for an artist residency at the Merwin Conservancy in Hawaii. Hamilton's installations over four decades have incorporated materials like 14,000 human and animal teeth, metric tons of horsehair, 750,000 pennies bound by honey, silk, falling paper, and live performers including singers, readers, eaters, and sheep. Her work has been installed internationally in locations including New York, Sweden, Ecuador, Laos, and Japan.