Portfolio NBC | ingahamilton

portfolio

Artist Statement

My multi-disciplinary practice intertwines object, body and folklore. Blending the spaces between human and nonhuman animals, it encompasses the creation of ritual objects
for large-scale installations and the performance of their ceremonial rites.

My inhabitable sculptures and art jewellery echo rituals, tools and materials
worked by multiple species' communities, drawing on our shared
planet citizenship and all our ancestral makers.

Transferring my knowledge of these tools and materials through workshops gives participants permission to explore new ways of using craft in innovative ways.

I wish to envelop you through evocative storytelling; to engage every
sense; and paramountly, to instigate conversations about all species' making.

2020 The Ancients Series. No.4. THE VULNERABLE BLAMED: Pangolin

The vulnerable are often blamed for the abuse they suffer. Pangolins, the planet's most trafficked animal, and listed as a vulnerable species, are blamed for the Covid-19 pandemic. Pangolins were not complicit in humans eating them. Those with power rarely use it wisely and escape justice by deflecting blame. Here, the spiritual pangolin in me offers protection when I am vulnerable.

The 4th in a projected series of 12 Ancients. Each a different spiritual facet of the artist.

Textile, leather, polystyrene, polymer clay & resin.

Watch the making of the pangolin facemask in the ‘Film’ section of the ‘About’ pull-down menu.

©2020 Inga Hamilton. Photography: Andrew Hamilton

2017 The Ancients Series. No.3 ANGER: Fenrir

Fenrir is the pure, righteous anger unleashed - the power and voice of a victim’s rage powerfully rising above their aggressor.

The 3rd in a projected series of 12 Ancients. Each a different spiritual facet of the artist.

Leather, textile, polystyrene, ceramic & resin.
©2020 Inga Hamilton. Photography: nick@syncimaging.com

2015 The Ancients Series. No.1 MOTHER OF ALL: La Pachamama Santa Maria

La Pachamama Santa Maria is the goddess of all – animal, mineral, vegetable, protist. Share with her your joys, and she will capture your woes in her whispering pots.

The 1st in a projected series of 12 Ancients. Each a different spiritual facet of the artist.

Leather, textile, polystyrene, ceramic & resin.

Materialisation: Mapping The Making, VISUAL, Carlow Ireland.
The Ancients – solo show. Foster Art Gallery, New Wilmington, PA. USA
Call and Response – Angie Newman Gallery, Alexandria, VA. USA
The Ancients - Red Dirt Studio, MD. USA

2020 21st Century Salt Ruff. Regal Wear For The Nature Warrior.

Through the use of readily-dismissed, low-value natural materials, such as seaweed and salt, I endeavour to produce desirable, high-value, wearable adornment. By instigating comparative discussion around my work with that of non-human-animal makers employing the same materials and techniques as myself, such as decorator crabs, birds or dolphins, I hope to challenge the viewer’s concepts of value and adornment within the natural world.
Lo/No-ecoimpact body adornment.
Seaweed, Salt, Gilding Wax & Lacquer.
60cm x 60cm x 35cm. Photo by the artist in lockdown.

2020 Selkie Bridal Bracelet. Dissolvable Jewellery For A Fleeting Moment.

Inspired by the courtiship posies exchanged by dolphins.
Through the use of readily-dismissed, low-value natural materials, such as seaweed and salt, I endeavour to produce desirable, high-value, wearable adornment. By instigating comparative discussion around my work with that of non-human-animal makers employing the same materials and techniques as myself, such as decorator crabs, birds or dolphins, I hope to challenge the viewer’s concepts of value and adornment within the natural world.
Lo/No-ecoimpact body adornment.
Seaweed, Salt, Food Colouring & Lacquer.
10cm x 10cm x 6cm. Photo by the artist in lockdown

2020 This Great Orb (ring) On Which We Live.

Inspired by the bubbles that dolphins exchange in play.
Through the use of readily-dismissed, low-value natural materials, such as seaweed and salt, I endeavour to produce desirable, high-value, wearable adornment. By instigating comparative discussion around my work with that of non-human-animal makers employing the same materials and techniques as myself, such as decorator crabs, birds or dolphins, I hope to challenge the viewer’s concepts of value and adornment within the natural world.
Lo/No-ecoimpact body adornment.
Seaweed, Lacquer & 23.5ct Gold Leaf.
12cm x 6cm x 5cm. Photo by the artist in lockdown.

2018 Gobekli Tepe & Dwarka Cyborg Masks. The Dept. of Robot Ethnology’s ROOM OF CONNECTION

Part of a permanent installation of sculptures and drawings by Inga Hamilton for Queen’s University EEECs building, Belfast. The room of ‘curiosities’ is designed to inspire ‘idea collisions’ in robotics students and features hundreds of amilton's scultpures and drawings.

Each cyborg mask 60cm x 60cm x 25cm

2018 MamaMotherboard. The Dept. of Robot Ethnology’s ROOM OF CONNECTION

2011 Shadows Grow, Dubh, New York.

Dubh: Dialogues in Blanck, The American Irish Historical Society, NYC.
A dialogue between leading Irish and American makers.
Created to sit beneath the Society's Steinway piano. Ceramic & Textile.

Workshop1 : Building a Tree Loom

Teaching Viking techniques of loom building. Using a tree and sawn limbs, we build a loom and weave gathered materials to create site-specific 'cloth'.
Workshops for universities and guilds in New York, Florida, England & Ireland.

Workshop 1: Finished Tree Loom, Ireland

Participants in the Irish workshop selected buttercups and hedgerow flowers to create a bio-degradable tapestry of the site.
New Yorkers chose pumpkins and squash as loom weights (devoured by the local squirrels during the night), Floridian participants used Spanish Moss and the English workshop chose apple branches and string form the orchard where it was built.

Workshop 2: Yarn Carding

From Fleece To Sculpture, particpants are taught how to sort, scour and dye their fleece. Then card, spin and crochet it into forms that create a sculpture.

Workshop 3: Yarn Dyeing & Spinning

My unique blends and colourways led me to create yarns for the late Alexander McQueen at Gucci. Participants learn my personal techniques and tips.

Workshop 4: Create A Creature Head

My inhabitable sculptures take up to a year ot create. In these workshiops, participants learn ghow to work together and create their own mythical creature. Staring with a taped polystyrene head, they learn to soft sulpt features using fibre and found objects.

Workshop 4: Creature Head WIP

This horse-like creature was created by residents for the Carlow Arts Festival parade in 2014.

Workshop 4: Pitfiring Ceramic Birds

Pitfiring is a quick and accessible way of learning to fire ceramics. Perfect for guild and university workshops.

Workshop 4: Pitfired Ceramic Birds

Students learnt how to sculpt cermics birds, which they pitfired and left in the town around their New York State university campus.

​ Inga Hamilton

Autistic PhD Researcher & Maker Art Jewellery & Inhabitable Sculptures Blending the Spaces Between Species

portfolio

Artist Statement

Inga Hamilton

Autistic PhD Researcher & Maker
Art Jewellery & Inhabitable Sculptures Blending the Spaces Between Species