2021 Exhibition
32. Waters of a Lower Register
Artist Information
Allison Janae Hamilton’s Waters of a Lower Register is an immersive 5-channel film installation that uses the material of land—and the histories and tensions carried within—as a metaphor to reflect the range of emotions that this tumultuous year has manifested. The film, full of natural beauty and motion, intersperses swirling landscapes and atmospheric sounds, reorienting up and down and moving between quiet and frenetic, contemplative and chaotic.
Shot in the artist’s native North Florida, in part in the aftermath of a tropical storm, Waters of a Lower Register invites viewers to both reflect on and relate to the narratives nature reveals as it mirrors back all that it witnesses. In juxtaposing the natural world’s wonder and challenges, particularly with the rhythms of a city in cataclysm, we are reminded that the land holds all that we experience, past and present.
Waters of a Lower Register was originally presented by Creative Time in Brooklyn Bridge Park in December 2020.
Allison Janae Hamilton
Allison Janae Hamilton (b.1984 Lexington, KY) is a multi-disciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, photography, and video who fuses land-centered folklore and personal family narratives into mythologies that address the social and political concerns of today's changing Southern terrain. The artist’s commitment to the land is driven by her own migrations from Kentucky to Florida, Tennessee and New York, where she currently lives. Hamilton’s work connects the landscape with the lived experience it carries, positioning it as critical to understanding both history and contemporary culture.
Hamilton’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including monographs at MASS MoCA North Adams, MA (2018) and Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta, GA (2018). Hamilton has also participated in fellowships and residencies, including with the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York, NY; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and Fundación Botín; Santander, Spain. She is the recipient of the Creative Capital Award and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grant. Hamilton holds a PhD in American Studies from New York University and an MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University.
allisonjanaehamilton.com