Ann Hamilton’s Lineament (1994) is about, how a three dimensional ball is being created from a flat page of a book. The installation consists of plywood walls, suspended seat and table, film projector light, seated figure lifting and winding cut text in continuous line from a prepared book. At the very first sight , we find it's simply is a change of shape, from 2 dimensional to three dimensional form. But there is no transformation from one form to the other since the plane of the book is three dimensional, only shape of the paper changes to a ball. Here, each line of text can be seen as a metaphor of time, and various such lines form a ball, metaphor for life.
Hamilton says the line of text where like thread; it’s touched and rolled to form a ball. When the line of text is cut and rolled, our hands run through each letter of the text. From a spiritualistic aspect, each letter, symbolizes each moment in life and is being felt, letters become words, words become line of text, as each word and line pass by, they roll up to form the circle of life. The words (time) that we already passed becomes our memory(Steven Wallace’s poem “Planet on the Table” is about the remembrance of time), an experience in life.
Ann Hamilton shows how time can be touched and felt, it’s made visible, by the help of words. In the installation, even though the three dimensional ball of text represents the circle of life, the ends of the line of text are not glued to form a perfect circle. Our life never ends; our body and soul are two different constituents existing together, like two sides of a coin, when we die, our life continues in the form of soul/spirit.
“Symbols give meaning to human thought, experience and action and it does not provide a clear statement of meaning or belief” (Langer, 25). As time progressed, people began to view the world objectively, where words and symbols took on shared meanings and with new knowledge comes new questions. The symbols used here are the letters, words and line of text from the book. Again, when we look closely, each letter in the text three dimensional (type), look alike but fundamentally one differs from the other (lines and shape). It’s the same case with our lives, born as humans; unique in behaviour, body and mind.
Everything is surrounded by the mists of significations which carry the mind in many directions, all according to knowledge, interest, and level of awareness brought to bear at any given moment when we happen to look around. Of course, all these perceptions involve signs and the mind in knowing may make comparisons among objects of which it is aware, and from these comparisons relations do indeed result. Langer points out, “Meaning has both a logical and a psychological aspect,” and both aspects are present at all times. The use of symbols to concentrate or intensify meaning makes the work more subjective than objective. Our thought becomes a power of source/knowledge, providing possibilities of meaning and of truth that lie outside empirical seizure or proof- the root-impulse of the human spirit. There are values and energies in the human person -- and an inner voice which cannot be revealed with analytical and empirical tools. Hamilton's installation provide access to such intimations, intimations which if inimical to reason are nonetheless instinctual to humanity-the sixth sense, spirituality.
Ann Hamilton shows how time can be touched and felt, it’s made visible, by the help of words. In the installation, even though the three dimensional ball of text represents the circle of life, the ends of the line of text are not glued to form a perfect circle. Our life never ends; our body and soul are two different constituents existing together, like two sides of a coin, when we die, our life continues in the form of soul/spirit.
“Symbols give meaning to human thought, experience and action and it does not provide a clear statement of meaning or belief” (Langer, 25). As time progressed, people began to view the world objectively, where words and symbols took on shared meanings and with new knowledge comes new questions. The symbols used here are the letters, words and line of text from the book. Again, when we look closely, each letter in the text three dimensional (type), look alike but fundamentally one differs from the other (lines and shape). It’s the same case with our lives, born as humans; unique in behaviour, body and mind.
Everything is surrounded by the mists of significations which carry the mind in many directions, all according to knowledge, interest, and level of awareness brought to bear at any given moment when we happen to look around. Of course, all these perceptions involve signs and the mind in knowing may make comparisons among objects of which it is aware, and from these comparisons relations do indeed result. Langer points out, “Meaning has both a logical and a psychological aspect,” and both aspects are present at all times. The use of symbols to concentrate or intensify meaning makes the work more subjective than objective. Our thought becomes a power of source/knowledge, providing possibilities of meaning and of truth that lie outside empirical seizure or proof- the root-impulse of the human spirit. There are values and energies in the human person -- and an inner voice which cannot be revealed with analytical and empirical tools. Hamilton's installation provide access to such intimations, intimations which if inimical to reason are nonetheless instinctual to humanity-the sixth sense, spirituality.
