Allison Janae Hamilton
Bio: Allison Janae Hamilton (b. 1984) is a visual artist working in photography, sculpture, installation, and taxidermy. Born in Kentucky, raised in Florida, and with family roots in rural Tennessee, her artwork features uncanny scenes that blend the disturbing and the delicate within an imaginative American southern landscape. Hamilton was a Fellow at the Whitney Independent Study Program ('13-'14), received a Ph.D. from NYU ('15), and has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Jewish Museum, and the Istanbul Design Biennial. Her artwork has appeared in Transition Magazine, Women and Performance, and Artforum.
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: My work contains narratives that are pieced together from folktales, superstitions, sermons, overheard gossip, hunting and farming rituals, and Baptist hymns. Parables, magic, hoodoo, the black church, and my own family lore help me to imagine what the mode of the epic myth looks and feels like in rural terrain. My use of both live animals and their bloodless remains incarnates the landscape as a witness—the environment is a knowing observer.
L to R: A balm for the living (8 minutes, 22 seconds, Video, 2016); The Land of Milk or Honey (5 minutes, 5 seconds, Video, 2016)