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    Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E

     
    All galleries
    October 11, 2014 — April 26, 2015
    the common S E N S E is a museum-wide exhibition of newly commissioned works by American artist Ann Hamilton (born 1956). The Henry first featured Hamilton's art in 1992 with an installation that occupied all the galleries of the museum's original building designed in 1926 by Carl Gould. For accountings—a landmark event in Seattle—the museum became a landscape: its floors skinned with numbered steel tokens, its walls licked with candle soot, an oversized display case filled with wax votive heads, and two hundred canaries flying free. In 2009, the Henry invited Hamilton to return to the expanded museum, now quadrupled in size with the 1997 building designed by Charles Gwathmey.
    For the common S E N S E, Hamilton conceived of the Henry as a hub connecting to the University of Washington's collections and academic programs. As a Visiting Fellow, she conducted research in the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, the University Libraries Special Collections, and the Henry's holdings of costumes, textiles, and photographs. The material elements of the exhibition are drawn from these collections. Images of animal specimens; bestiaries and children's ABC primers; fur, feather, and gut garments are stitched together with sound, voice, printed texts, and the movement of air in a building newly opened to light. Time is also a material of the exhibition. Over the six-month duration of the common S E N S E, the project will shift with some elements depleting and others accumulating. Periodically, the galleries will be animated by reading and singing.
    Aristotle wrote in Historia Animalum and De Anima that "touch" is the sense common to all animal species. In this project, touch is not only physical contact but a form of intellectual and emotional recognition. The exhibition is full of images and skins of animals: once alive, they touched and were touched in return by the world they inhabited. For Hamilton the common S E N S E is "an address to the finitude and threatened extinctions we share across species—a lacrimosa, an elegy, for a future being lost."
    As part of the common S E N S E, readers were invited to submit text fragments from published literature on the subject of touch. Selections from these submissions were available for visitors to collect throughout the exhibition. Visitors were also invited to take a newsprint image of an animal specimen in our upper level galleries and to add their image to the portraits that accrued in our lower galleries. The public was also invited to participate in the exhibition by becoming a reader/scribe.
    For the artist's perspective on the installation, we invite you to view this digital document created by her studio.
    ARTISTS
    Ann Hamilton
    CREDITS

    Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E is organized by Henry Director Sylvia Wolf, with assistance from Nina Bozicnik, Assistant Curator, and project management by Susan Lewandowski, Manager of Exhibitions and Registration. Major support is provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. The exhibition is also made possible by 4Culture/King County Lodging Tax, season supporter ArtsFund, The Boeing Company, City of Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts. It is additionally supported through gifts made to the Henry Now Campaign by the Barton Family Foundation in memory of Irving Marcus; Cathy and Michael Casteel; the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation; William and Ruth True; and the Bagley and Virginia Wright Fund. We are grateful for in-kind contributions from Richard Manderbach and Krekow Jennings Inc. Special thanks to Phillip Turner, Jerry Garcia, and Kirsten Ring Murray of Olson Kundig Architects and to the staffs of the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture and the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections for their partnership in realizing Hamilton's vision for the common S E N S E.

    Related Programs

    <p><em>Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E</em> [installation view]. 2014-2015. Henry Art Gallery. Photo credit: Mark Woods.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Reader/Scribes

    May 7, 2015
    <p><em>Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E</em> [installation view]. 2014-2015. Henry Art Gallery. Photo credit: Mark Woods.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Readers Reading Readers

    April 27, 2015
    <p>Bull Roarchestra with Stuart Dempster performing on February 20, 2015. Photo credit: Jonathan Vanderweit</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Bull Roarchestra with Stuart Dempster

    March 29, 2015
    <p>Photo credit: Robert Wade</p>
    Programs

    Sylvia Wolf

    March 28, 2015
    Talks & Performances

    Arty Party

    April 19, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Julian Miller</p>
    Programs

    Julian Miller

    February 21, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Salt Horse</p>
    Programs

    Salt Horse

    March 14, 2015
    <p>Suzi Kozawa performing as part of Bull Roarchestra with Stuart Dempster. Photo credit: Jonathan Vanderweit</p>
    Programs

    Suzi Kozawa

    March 21, 2015
    <p>Photo credit: Chona Kasinger</p>
    Programs

    Ann Hamilton

    March 26, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Melia Watras</p>
    Programs

    Melia Watras & Luke Fitzpatrick & Romaric Pokorny & Emmeran Pokorny

    April 4, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Jeff Rice</p>
    Programs

    Jeff Rice

    April 11, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Jennifer Salk</p>
    Programs

    Jennifer Salk

    April 18, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Corrie Befort</p>
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    Corrie Befort and Ensemble

    April 25, 2015
    <p>Bang on a Can All-Stars. Photo credit: Marco Pieri</p>
    Programs

    Bang on a Can: Animal/Mineral

    February 14, 2015
    Programs

    Haruko Crow Nishimura and Joshua Kohl of Degenerate Art Ensemble

    February 5, 2015
    <p>Photo credit: Dan Bennett.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Graduate Student
    Happy Hour

    January 16, 2015
    Talks & Performances

    SAL U Lectures: Thinking Animals - Species, Power, and the Politics of Care in the World

    January 30, 2015
    Talks & Performances

    SAL U Lectures: Thinking Animals - Species, Power, and the Politics of Care in the World

    February 13, 2015
    Talks & Performances

    SAL U Lectures: Thinking Animals - Species, Power, and the Politics of Care in the World

    February 27, 2015
    <p>
    Image courtesy of María Elena García
</p>
    Programs

    María Elena García

    February 26, 2015
    Programs

    Robert Twomey

    March 7, 2015
    <p>Seattle Chambers Players. Photo credit: Seattle Chamber Players, courtesy of Juan Pampin.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    ... that language is shaped air ... A performance by Juan Pampin with the Seattle Chamber Players

    March 20, 2015
    Talks & Performances

    A Silent Reading with Ann Hamilton and Joshua Beckman

    March 26, 2015
    Talks & Performances

    Hugo at the Henry: Senses in Reading and Writing

    March 21, 2015
    <p><em>Death and Burial of Cock Robin</em>. London: W. Sutton, ca. 1870. Historical Children's Literature Collection, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections.</p>
    Programs

    ArtVenture with
    Zack and Gala Bent

    January 11, 2015
    <p>Patterson, Seattle. <i>Woman's hat</i>. c. 1924-1926. Plush, bird of paradise feathers, silk satin trim. Henry Art Gallery, School of Drama Collection, 84.7-619.</p>
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    Object Narratives:
    Plumage and Pillage - The Millinery Fashion Trade

    February 12, 2015
    <p>ArtVenture with the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture</p>
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    ArtVenture with
    the Burke Museum
    (Part Two)

    January 4, 2015
    <p>Jessixa Bagley</p>
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    ArtVenture with
    Jessixa Bagley

    March 8, 2015
    Programs

    ArtVenture: Imagining Animals, Drawing by Sounds

    February 8, 2015
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Jayme Yen

    January 10, 2015
    <p>Angela Mele. <em>Lichens of North Florida</em> [detail].</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Angela Mele

    January 17, 2015
    <p>Shin Yu Pai, poet and writer. Photo credit: Kelly O.</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Shin Yu Pai

    January 24, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of the Nile Project.</p>
    Programs

    the Nile Project

    January 29, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Brian Carter.</p>
    Programs

    Brian Carter

    January 31, 2015
    <p>Courtesy of Emily Zimmerman</p>
    Programs

    Emily Zimmerman

    February 7, 2015
    <p>Processed bear gut. Image courtesy of Sven Haakanson.</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Sven Haakanson 

    December 6, 2014
    <p>Randy Engstrom, Director of Seattle's Office of Arts and Culture</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Randy Engstrom

    December 4, 2014
    <p>Mickey Alice Kwapis, licensed taxidermist and instructor</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Mickey Alice Kwapis

    December 13, 2014
    <p>Erin Bailey, Coordinator of Special Gallery Programs + Research, Henry Art Gallery</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Erin Bailey

    December 20, 2014
    <p>Claire Cowie, maker of drawings, prints, sculptures, and photographs</p>
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    ArtBreak with
    Claire Cowie

    December 27, 2014
    <p>Timea Tihanyi, artist</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Timea Tihanyi

    January 3, 2015
    Programs

    ArtBreak with
    Barbara Ceiga

    November 29, 2014
    <p>Nina Bozicnik, Assistant Curator, Henry Art Gallery</p>
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    ArtBreak with
    Nina Bozicnik

    November 15, 2014
    <p>Beth Kollé, harpist</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with Beth Kollé

    November 8, 2014
    Programs

    ArtVenture with Alisha Dall’Osto

    November 9, 2014
    <p>Rachael Faust, Assistant Curator of Collections, Henry Art Gallery</p>
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    ArtBreak with Rachael Faust

    November 1, 2014
    <p>Image courtesy of Ozen Company.</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with Aykut Ozen

    October 25, 2014
    <p>Reader/scribe. Photo credit: Jonathan Vanderweit.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Call for Reader/Scribes

    October 11, 2014 – April 26, 2015
    <p>Image courtesy of Ann Hamilton.</p>
    Talks & Performances
    Call for Readers
    October 11, 2014 – April 26, 2015
    <p><em>An Elegy on the Death and Burial of Cock Robin. </em>York: J. Kendrew, 1820. Historical Children's Literature Collection, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections.</p>
    Programs
    ArtVenture with Lynne Conrad Marvet
    October 12, 2014
    <p>Ann Hamilton. Photo credit: Michael Mercil.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    An Evening with Ann Hamilton

    March 30, 2015
    <p> Bull Roarchestra. Photo credit: Greg Campbell, courtesy of Stuart Dempster.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Bull Roarchestra with Stuart Dempster

    February 20, 2015
    <p>UW Chorale performs at the 2014 Henry Gala. Photo credit: Dan Bennett</p>
    Talks & Performances

    An Evening in the Galleries with the UW Chorale

    January 23, 2015
    <p>Ann Hamilton. Digital scan of a specimen from the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Mammal Collection. Courtesy of the artist.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Seattle Arts & Lectures: Thinking Animals series

    January 9, 2015
    <p>Erin Bailey, Coordinator of Special Gallery Programs + Research, Henry Art Gallery</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with Erin Bailey

    November 6, 2014
    <p>Joe Milutis, writer, media&nbsp;artist,&nbsp;and assistant professor at University Washington-Bothell</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with Joe Milutis

    October 30, 2014
    <p>Erin Bailey, Coordinator of Special Gallery Programs + Research, Henry Art Gallery</p>
    Programs

    ArtBreak with Erin Bailey

    October 18, 2014
    <p>Ann Hamilton. Digital scan of a specimen from the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Ornithology Collection. Courtesy of the artist.</p>
    Talks & Performances
    Exhibition Orientation for University Faculty and Educators
    February 4, 2015
    <p>Ann Hamilton. <em>abc</em> [video still]. 1994/1999. Single-channel video (black and white, no sound); 30 minutes. Courtesy of the artist.</p>
    Talks & Performances
    Exhibition Orientations for University Faculty and Educators
    October 15, 2014
    <p><em>The Death and Burial of Cock Robin</em>. London: Frederick Warne &amp; Co., 1876. Historical Children’s Literature Collection, Rare, University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. Gift of Pamela K. Harer.</p>
    Talks & Performances
    Mark Payne: How Can Literary Imagination Help Us Engage with the Lives of Other Animals?
    December 4, 2014
    <table>  <tbody><tr>   <td><em>The Young   Child’s A, B, C; or, First Book. </em>New-York:   Samuel Wood &amp; Sons, 1818. Historical Children’s Literature Collection, Rare,   University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections. Gift of Pamela K.   Harer, PE1119.A1 Y63 1818. Rare</td>  </tr></tbody></table>
    Talks & Performances

    Object Narratives: Conversations With the Past - Inspiration and History

    March 19, 2015
    <p>Woman’s evening coat. 1928 – 1929. Silk velvet; Red fox fur; Georgette and crepe lining. Henry Art Gallery, John Dutton Wright Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Drumheller, 85.1-258. Photo credit: R.J. Sánchez.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Object Narratives:
    Fur and Fashion in Seattle

    January 29, 2015
    <p>Processed bear intestine. Image courtesy Sven Haakanson</p>
    Talks & Performances
    Object Narratives: Gut Skin Processing
    November 23, 2014
    <p>Ann Hamilton. Digital scan of a specimen from the University of Washington’s Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Mammal Collection. Courtesy of the artist.</p>
    Talks & Performances

    Opening Celebration
    for Ann Hamilton: 
    the common S E N S E

    October 11, 2014
    <p>The 2014 Henry Gala. Photo credit: Dan Bennett</p>
    Talks & Performances
    Blank Page, White Cloth: The 2014 Henry Gala
    February 8, 2014

    Updates

    Posted March 29, 2016
    Capturing "the common SENSE"

    "The Museum is an institution of sight, a house of looking and seeing,
    a place where we behold with our eyes. We may be stirred, moved or
    touched by what we see but we rarely touch the thing seen.

    I lament this distance."

    -- Ann Hamilton


    In this lovely digital document, artist Ann Hamilton documents her 2014-15 installation the common S E N S E at the Henry.

    Posted May 07, 2015
    Readers Reading Readers & Reader/Scribes: An Update

    As part of the exhibition Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E, we invited the public to share selections from their reading that described an exchange of touch. We received hundreds of submissions on the Tumblr site Readers Reading Readers, which was set up specifically for the exhibition. Excerpts ranged from paragraphs from novels, fragments of poetry, a few lines from the newspaper, or a response in a letter. Selected contributions were printed on individual sheets of paper and distributed throughout the Henry galleries for visitors to assemble into an individualized commonplace book and guide to the common S E N S E. A commonplace book is a tool for collecting and organizing excerpts from books and other written works that provide its reader with easy access to ideas or arguments for a variety of situations.

    "Just as a book connects the near at hand to the far away," Ann Hamilton writes, "touch transverses our interior and exterior worlds."

    While we can no longer accept submissions, we invite to you read and enjoy what others contributed to Readers Reading Readers and the common S E N S E.

    During the exhibition, reader/scribes were an ongoing presence in the galleries, giving sociability to the often silent and solitary act of reading. Although reading at different times of day and from different pages, individual reader/scribes were connected to each other through the acts of reading and writing from a shared text. The first project book—read from October to February— was The Peregrine by J.A. Baker. The second was Mercè Rodoreda's novel Death in Spring, read from February to the close of the exhibition in April.

    Reader/scribes selected a comfortable place to read out loud to the animals—represented both in images and materially present in the cultural artifacts on display. As they read, they transcribed selections of text from the project book that had personal significance. Each book and scribe log—thirty copies each—accumulated the marks of individual reader/scribes to become a physical record of the collective activity. In this Henry blog post, arts writer Elissa Favero shares her experiences as a reader/scribe and what it meant to her.


    Posted May 07, 2015
    Stuart Dempster and the Bull Roarchestra Bring Music to "the common S E N S E"

    In February 2015, renowned composer and UW School of Music Professor Emeritus Stuart Dempster and his specially assembled Bull Roarchestra gave a performance inspired by Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E. The piece responded to the atmosphere and sounds created by the Field of Bullroarers.

    The Bull Roarchestra was composed of bass drums, hand bullroarers, and didgeridoos in concert. The audience experienced the sound in our lower level gallery and as it echoed through the surrounding areas. The performance was such a hit, that the Bull Roarchestra returned in late March for an encore performance, for which the artist was present.


    Posted February 26, 2015
    Inside "Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E" with a Reader/Scribe

    As part of "the common S E N S E," volunteer reader/scribes have been reading out loud in the galleries while transcribing selections of text from a project book, giving sociability to the often silent and solitary act of reading. The joined processes of reading and writing address the animals, represented in images and materially present in the garments made of fur, feather, and gut on view.

    In this video, University of Washington graduate student Anna Wager reads from J.A. Baker's The Peregrine, the first book Hamilton selected for the reader/scribe activity. Mercè Rodoreda's Death in Spring follows as the second project book, starting in late February.

    Learn more and become a reader/scribe yourself!

    Posted January 21, 2015
    Ann Hamilton and “the common S E N S E” featured on UW360

    We invite you on a virtual visit to the common S E N S E. Hear artist Ann Hamilton's thoughts on developing the exhibition and our collaboration with UW departments to create a unique experience. This video was produced for the Henry by UWTV and was featured on UW360 and KOMO TV.

    POSTS
    March 29, 2016
    May 07, 2015
    May 07, 2015
    February 26, 2015
    January 21, 2015