Active Measures, an exhibition of recent work by Jamie Hamilton, opens at Torrance Art Museum Saturday, March 31 from 6 – 9 and is on display through May 18.
Drawing on raw surplus materials such as aluminum from the aerospace industry and dichroic glass from optical laboratories, the artist has machined sensuous systemic objects in which reflections and recursions proliferate, dazzling the viewer. Hamilton’s work is influenced by the legacy of Constructivism and Duchamp’s erotic bachelor machine but also scavenges ancient forms (reliquary, dorje, weapon, serpent, celestial sphere…) that have seemingly mutated with contemporary tropes in genetics, neuroscience, finance and informatics. Their meticulous engineered design articulates extreme contrasts of scale and polarities of strength and delicacy befitting a post-digital conception of space-time. Near and far, physical and virtual, horror/humor and the sublime are scrambled or collapsed, resonating as such with current ideas about the anthropocene, post-humanism, dark ecology and speculative realism in philosophy. The palpable density of valuable materials and extravagance of skilled labor exhibited in these subtle pseudo machines engender a risky question about how our culture establishes value. What endures? Hamilton’s work goes daringly against the grain of the increasingly immaterial labor and aggressive speed of our world while beautifully embodying its dilemmas.
Jamie Hamilton holds a BA from Bard College and a MFA from Transart University. His interdisciplinary creative practice includes public and clandestine aerial performances in settings ranging from the canyons of New Mexico to the Los Angeles River, as well as the design of special high wire installations. Solo exhibitions include the Center for Contemporary Art, Chiaroscuro Contemporary and Launch Projects in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His work has also been shown at the Linder Project Space in Berlin, the Kingston Biennial in New York, and The Museum of Fine Art in Santa Fe. He has been a resident at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and in 2017 he was nominated for the Art Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is featured in the upcoming summer issue of LA HOME magazine and has been written about in ArtNews and Visual Art Source.
