Anthea Hamilton

Anthea Hamilton's interdisciplinary interest in performance is evident in her sculptural assemblages and installations whose tableau-like quality makes them reminiscent of stage sceneries or film sets, and which she has referred to as "performative spaces". Her sculptures, idiosyncratic constructions precariously balanced between emergence and collapse, function like props for stories that remain to be told. Asked about her sources of inspiration, she has frequently mentioned the French writer Antonin Artaud and his idea of a "physical knowledge of images." It is this bodily response to an idea or an image that she wants us to experience when we encounter her work and its use of unexpected materials, scale and humour; like the off-kilter proportions of the various elements, they attest to the fine sense of humour that sustains her art. Hamilton has also conceived and designed an artist book, which comprises a series of images collaged from personal photographs, found images and computer-based drawings as well as a short talk with her daughter.