
Where am I? What is here? Who is here? These are the questions that internationally renowned artist Ann Hamilton asks herself at the beginning of every project in order to find the appropriate medium, form, and physical manifestation with which to respond to the site or occasion. Eight years in the making, Hamilton’s exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art focuses on a medium that has become increasingly important to her over the past decade—photography. Hamilton used a handheld scanner to bring to life objects in the museum’s collection that are rarely on display: small-scale figurative ceramics and crèche figures from the 1600s to the 1800s. Her floor-to-ceiling images of the diminutive sculptures fill the walls and surround the viewer in the museum’s photography gallery. The sculptures become characters joined in a story that is hinted at but never told. A different photographic medium—video—dominates the second of the exhibition’s two galleries, where three videos circle the walls. They ask us to consider the act of making, to explore the concept of turning in space, and to ponder the relationship between touch and language. Born in Lima, Ohio, and living in Columbus, Hamilton is among Ohio’s most influential and best-known artists. Among her many honors are the National Medal of the Arts, the MacArthur Fellowship, the Heinz Award, and the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship.