{"id":10005,"date":"2019-01-15T15:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T20:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=10005"},"modified":"2019-01-16T12:17:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-16T17:17:47","slug":"dell-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/01\/15\/dell-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance Artist Dell M. Hamilton Exhibits Turbulent Abstractions"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re familiar with Dell M. Hamilton<\/a>\u2019s searing performances in recent years about police violence against African Americans, about America and its ideals, her new exhibition \u201cAll Languages Welcomed Here\u201d at Salem State University\u2019s Winfisky Gallery<\/a> from Jan. 10 to Feb. 8, may feel like a surprise.<\/p>\n

Because at the heart of this exhibition\u2014which includes a gallery talk on Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. followed by a reception from 6 to 8 p.m.\u2014are monumental, abstract, mixed media drawings and collages.<\/p>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton’s exhibition “All Languages Welcomed Here” at Salem State University, Jan. 9, 2019. Center: “Leviathan, The Blue Knight (aka The Beast),” 2017-2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLeviathan, The Blue Knight (aka the Beast)\u201d is a turbulent 15-foot-wide collage and drawing, made from charcoal, gel medium, paper, acrylic paint, graphite, gesso, China marker, duct tape, oil pastel, oil bar, staples, collage, plastic, cardboard, masking tape, colored pencil, thread. The paper ripples up like a raging storm. Hamilton writes that it\u2019s inspired by \u201cthe cosmos and ocean, mythology, Gray’s Anatomy, weather forecasts, and maps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow Does It Feel to Put Yourself Back Together After You\u2019ve Been Torn Apart\u201d is a 15-foot-wide drawing and collage, scuffed and stained. It\u2019s assembled of papers bluntly stitched together with thread like hastily addressed wounds. The paper has footprints from being left on the floor of her studio, \u201cpicking up people\u2019s different scuff marks as they came into the room.\u201d She describes it as a \u201ccumulative performance.\u201d Red drops splash across the center like blood.<\/p>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton, “How Does It Feel to Put Yourself Back Together After You\u2019ve Been Torn Apart?” 2017-2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hamilton says the stormy abstract compositions were partly a response to the deaths of Sandra Bland and Freddie Gray after being taken into police custody in 2015. They were among the deaths that galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement nationally in response to police brutality and racism. Hamilton says, \u201cOut of trying to work through some of that trauma that led me into making paintings and drawings again.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Hamilton plans to moderate a talk on \u201cThe Relationship Between Trauma, Art and Resilience\u201d with Angela Counts, Allison Maria Rodriguez and Umeleni Mhlaba-Adebo at Salem State\u2019s Metro Room in the Ellison Campus Center on Feb. 7 at 4 p.m.)<\/p>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton begins work on \u201cHow Does It Feel to Put Yourself Back Together After You’ve Been Torn Apart?\u201d in November 2017 at the Menino Art Center in Hyde Park, Boston. (Photo: Erik Gehring)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The abstractions are from a series the Boston artist calls, \u201cPunta: Pregunta.\u201d Hamilton\u2019s family has roots in the Caribbean and Central America. \u201cPunta\u201d refers to the dance of the Central American Garifuna culture. \u201cPregunta\u201d translates as \u201cquestion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not Garifuna,\u201d Hamilton writes, \u201cbut I deeply respect their culture. Given the importance of their rich traditions, I thought about their rightly justified struggles for freedom, autonomy and equity. On the flip side, punta is also a celebratory dance. Taking that into account, I thought of punta as a metaphor for what often happens when I’m in the studio. Sometimes it feels like I’m in a battle, fighting to express myself and gain respect in a field where equity isn’t available to most women artists of color. But there are also days when it indeed feels like a celebratory dance and as a result my footprints, my hands, and marks made by my arms and legs often end up in the work as well. As for pregunta which translates to question, I’m obsessively inquisitive and asking \u2018What If?\u2019 is also a major feature of my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton, Untitled, 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The exhibition also features “Emulsions in Departure,” abstract images developed through traditional film photographs put through digital processing. They appear scuffed and scratched, smudged with fingerprints. And along a hallway at the school\u2019s Sophia Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts, Hamilton has hung a series of tarry black abstractions.<\/p>\n

All of her abstractions can call to mind mid-20th century Action Painters and Abstract Expressionists like Barnett Newman, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner. Hamilton also draws inspiration from Jean Michel Basquiat and Mark Bradford.<\/p>\n

Hamilton is scheduled to perform \u201cThis Is All We Have\u201d at Salem State\u2019s Sophia Gordon Center on Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. In it, she\u2019ll wear a white dress while pushing a red dresser across the floor. \u201cI\u2019m showing our baggage, unpacking our baggage,\u201d she says. Hamilton then will take on personas\u2014Prissy, an enslaved woman in the 1939 film \u201cGone with the Wind,\u201d a Border Patrol agent, presidents Lincoln, Obama and Trump. Hamilton says, “This piece expands upon ongoing themes in my work of citizenship and the corrupt histories of plantation economies of North America, the Caribbean and Latin America.”<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton, “Leviathan, The Blue Knight (aka The Beast),” 2017-2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton, Untitled, 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton’s untitled artworks in her exhibition “All Languages Welcomed Here” at Salem State University, Jan. 9, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton “The Anatomy of Above and Below,” 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Detail<\/a>
Detail of Dell Hamilton, “Leviathan, The Blue Knight (aka The Beast),” 2017-2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Detail<\/a>
Detail of Dell Hamilton, “How Does It Feel to Put Yourself Back Together After You\u2019ve Been Torn Apart?” 2017-2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dell<\/a>
Dell Hamilton’s exhibition “All Languages Welcomed Here” at Salem State University, Jan. 9, 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re familiar with Dell M. Hamilton\u2019s searing performances in recent years about police violence against African Americans, about America and its ideals, her new exhibition \u201cAll Languages Welcomed Here\u201d at Salem State University\u2019s Winfisky Gallery from Jan. 10 to Feb. 8, may feel like a surprise. Because at the heart of this exhibition\u2014which includes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[46,506],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10005"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10019,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10005\/revisions\/10019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}