Press
Release
“If our head was closed off on all
sides…..”
Alex Hamilton
Photocopy Drawings & Newspaper Format
Drawings
14th September to 15th October 2005
Private View: Tuesday 13th September 7 to
9 pm
50A Church Street London NW8
"If we had a head and no eyes or ears
but only a head closed off on all sides,
we would know a great deal about ourselves
but nothing of the outside world. The most
important thing that comes into us from
the outside world is the air. The air stimulates
our head, too, since it comes in through
our nose, but very tenuously it also enters
us through our eyes, through our ears and
all parts. It is the air which sets the
head moving. (Rudolf Steiner) 28 July 1923"
The title of the first solo show of UK based
Australian artist Alex Hamilton with patrick
heide art projects “If our head was
closed off on all sides….” derives
from a free adaptation of a quote by Rudolf
Steiner about closing off all influences from
the outer world and concentrating on the stimulation
within our inner selves. Deliberately presented
out of its (possibly surrealistic) context,
Alex Hamilton was fascinated by the idea of
detaching from the outer world and closing
in only on oneself, ultimately also as a source
of inspiration. Most artists create their
works from a mainly personal perspective,
Alex Hamilton often seems to cite the formally
and visually familiar until one discovers
this to be disconnected from its origin and
translated into his very individual vision.
Alex Hamilton’s drawings represent a
foreign world in the middle of our world as
if at one instant we would suddenly become
oblivious to the outside world and instead
proceed with the shutting down process described
by Steiner to create our very own version.
In his Photocopy Drawings Alex Hamilton starts
off with a real photographic image of mostly
urban landscapes, displaying often shabby
and unglamorous buildings such as the Turner
Building (now demolished) or the Pentonville
Prison. In a first step of alteration he erases
several parts of the image and adds new forms
and structures before photocopying the image
again and repeating the erasing and redrawing
process. The result is an amalgam of original
and altered features combined to a somewhat
familiar but ultimately totally alienated
image. The choice of Pentonville prison as
a motif, a building that is literally about
being locked in, obliquely links his subject
matter to the quote above, though emphasizing
the physical aspect of enclosure over the
actual exterior shutting down to concentrate
on ones mental and creative abilities.
Alex Hamilton’s Newspaper Format Drawings
are visually inspired by the title pages of
international newspapers. In this drawing
series the artist formally translates the
layout of the page into his own language.
Executed in ink using a kind of personal “hieroglyphs”
the transformed images, articles and headlines
turn out to be part of a seemingly never-ending
production of urban and industrial landscapes
partly inspired by meticulous drawings from
the artist’s numerous sketch books.
Yet contrary to our expectations these drawings
are neither a code translating linguistic
aspects or contents of the title page nor
do they contemplate any of the topics mentioned
in the newspaper. Like the Photocopy Drawings
they create a detached very personal version
with a uniquely formal link to its original.
Again Alex Hamilton is interested in contradiction.
In exploring the possibilities in misunderstandings,
in negating the explicable and expected. Here
lies another connection to Steiner’s
above quotation. By describing the air flowing
in through the eyes and the ears Steiner is
challenging the familiar perception in a surrealistic
or even dadaistic manner.
But, Alex Hamilton’s imagery is neither
connected to the subconscious nor does it
bear marks of an emotional, psychological
or opinionated approach to the motifs he chooses.
What is seemingly surreal in the visual aesthetics
of his drawings reveals itself as a self-contradicting
intellectual statement about our environment
devoid of any solutions or feelings. It is
a world within our world, slowly sliding into
oblivion.
For a CV of the artist please refer to: www.patrickheide.com
- Artists – Alex Hamilton
For further information and appointments please
contact Patrick Heide:
+44 (0)790 0215 317 or patrickheide@hotmail.com
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