This exhibition is the first showing in Ireland by the internationally-acclaimed American artist, Ann Hamilton. Ann Hamilton at hand encompasses a broad range of the artist’s work, from a new complex installation to a series of video and photo works and sculptural objects, and spans her practice from the early 1980s to the present day. Hamilton creates sensory environments that often combine sound, text, video, photographs, books and vast quantities of material substances. They can also, conversely, be a space emptied of everything but its own presence and, crucially, the visitor is present to witness the work. Whether amassing enormous quantities of material or clearing large architectural spaces, Hamilton’s focus is always on the way a body of knowledge is generated, contained, perceived and absorbed.

The exhibition includes the first European showing of a dramatic new work, ‘at hand’, created in 2001. This installation comprises light leaves of paper floating endlessly down from the ceiling in response to visitors passing through the space to an accompanying soundtrack of the artist’s voice. Key to the exhibition are a series of four video works which focus on acts of speaking and hearing and photographic works including the ‘body object’ series from the early 1980s and the ‘face to face’ series from 2001.

Since she first came to public attention in the early 1980s Ann Hamilton has exhibited at MoMA, New York; the 1999 Venice Biennale, where she was the official US representative, and at Tate Liverpool. Her many awards included the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship Award, as well as the Guggenheim and the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Fellowships.

A comprehensive publication on her work by writer, editor and curator Joan Simon, published by Harry N Abrams Inc, New York accompanies the exhibition (price €75.00).

The exhibition is supported by Atlas Copco (Ireland) Ltd.