The Temporary Contemporary
The second in a series of MOCA-commissioned, single-artist projects, Ann Hamilton: the capacity of absorption comprised a three-room installation of objects and sets.
the capacity of absorption layered the architecture of the galleries with skin-like coverings and staged within them minimal scenes. The first room was paneled with beeswax-coated paper and included a fourteen-foot, flax-covered ring suspended at its center, a video of an ear filling with water protruding from one side, an old-fashioned telephone mouthpiece dangling from the other, and one hundred and fifty small glasses containing water protruded from the wall. The next room was painted with algae and held a long wooden table with a thin surface of flowing water, at one end of which stood a man in a canvas coat, his fingers pressed into the table. The canvas trailed into the final room, which had a floor of lead linotypes and powdered graphite walls, where it was attached to a massive buoy. A motorized, cut-out figure operated by wires and calipers danced across the long shelf coming out from the opposite wall.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue.
Ann Hamilton: the capacity of absorption was organized by Jacqueline Crist, Associate Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
The Temporary Contemporary is the original name of The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.