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Home
> Past Exhibitions
> 1991
> Ann Hamilton
 | Ann Hamilton
Offering (1991)
In collaboration with the 1991 Carnegie International
Wax ex voto heads, steel and glass case, heating elements, canaries, steel table, coal miner's ledger
505 Sampsonia Way, all 3 floors |
| | A simple 3-story row house, gutted, is the space for the installation. First floor A visitor coming from the street level entrance hears the sounds of birds, smells melting wax, and sees stalagmites of wax rising from the floor. The origins are revealed only by going up the stairs. |  |
|  | Second floor On a steel table is an old miner's ledger. Wax, dripping from the ceiling above, slowly covers the book. Heating elements below cause the wax to continue to melt, taking it through slits in the floor. |
| | Third floor A steel framed glass cabinet, 7 feet long, contains wax heads. A heating element causes the heads to melt, and the wax drips to the floor. Another heating element in the floor causes the wax to drip farther, to the floor below. |  |
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| Here are 30 canaries, traditionally used to test the oxygen supply for miners. The canaries are provided with food and water, and perch under the eaves. They build little nests in warm spots and begin to lay eggs. The windows are smoked with soot from candles. The birds don't fly into the glass, but leave brush marks from their wings on the blackened panes. Ann Hamilton
Born Lima, OH, 1956, lives and works in Columbus |
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