Re-Write In So Many Words

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Ruth Hamill’s installation In So Many Words includes 200 transparent plexiglass squares hung with microfilament in twirling columns. Each square shows a hand pulled screen printed word.  Each breaks apart common words that include man and men in order to draw attention to their prevalence in our language and the implications of that prevalence. The bright color and movement draws viewers in and then allows for them to ask themselves: What do these words have in common? Why are they here, hanging together like this?  The insidious nature of misogyny in daily life is the serious message, but this installation’s openness to interpretation and the accessibility with which it is presented (even a 4-year-old can sound out the words!) help pave the way for the message to break through. Her corresponding wall installation Re-Write consists of 9 framed mixed media works on paper. Hamill transforms and repeats an image derived from a  1967 family photograph. In works exponentially larger and more vibrant than the tiny B&W snapshots, Hamill takes one of the girls out of a group photograph, centers her, and changes her stance from object-like pose to one of lively movement. Flowers sprout dramatically from her head and the image repeats, she dances. The gingham pattern in these pieces, made from hundreds of individually cut and collaged squares per artwork, harkens to quaint family activities like picnics. The gingham squares that ground each panel emerge from behind the figures to become the basis of the text-based installation. That language is the backdrop in which the children in Hamill’s work live.