ANITRA HAMILTON
AT GEORGIA SCHERMAN PROJECTS

Opening Thursday, March 17, 6–8 pm
Runs through April 23, 2011

Georgia Scherman Projects is pleased to announce its second solo show with
Toronto based artist Anitra Hamilton. Entitled The Future Has Been Decided, this
exhibition concentrates on recurring themes of territoriality, hierarchy and ownership.
While clearly accepting that violence has and always will exist, Hamilton's work
deals with the history of violence from a critical and cynical point of view. Neither
moral judgment nor naïve anti-war sentiment is expressed: the complexity of warfare
is conveyed and acknowledged.

In this exhibition, Hamilton investigates those primal psychological urges, which drive
human beings and define our paradoxical nature. The will to create beauty and nurture
good is juxtaposed with the appetite to destroy and succumb to evil. An emphasis on
concealment within the works mimics the thin veneer of civilization that screens the
battle between good and evil endemic to human existence.

The power of seduction is called upon and explicitly demonstrated through Hamilton’s
strategic employment of unexpected substances and materials to create tactile and
enticing surfaces ~ surfaces that subvert the original function of her objects and lure
the viewer towards unexpected critical responses. While her objects appear to
challenge attitudes and initiate transformative thinking ~ they cynically reaffirm the
artist’s own ultimate skepticism.

Red Coat consists of a Canadian Forces Great Coat covered with 3000
commemorative Remembrance Day poppies and a sound recording of Two Minutes of
Silence at a Remembrance Day ceremony in the Canadian capital of Ottawa. The
brightly animated surface of the coat is in heavy contrast to its deflated appearance
and the accompanying sounds of droning planes, piercing trumpets, silence and
chiming bells.

In a series of works on MDF entitled, Turn Coat, Hamilton uses collage images cut
from books to “speak to the duality of good and evil inherent in all humans.”
She unites the top of one military serviceman with the bottom half of another: "there
are two sides to every argument".

Hey Auslander! (Hey Outsider!) continues this proposition when the viewer
finds herself in front of a large mirror shaped to form a heraldic shield. As in past
works, Hamilton employs heraldry to signify nationalism. She calls this work a
“rejecting mirror” where the gallery visitor can be seen to find herself in foreign
surroundings.

Born and based in Toronto, Anitra Hamilton has exhibited her work both nationally and
internationally. Her work appears in the collections of the Albright-Knox Gallery and
the Art Gallery of Ontario, among others. She is the past recipient of numerous grants
and awards, including a Chalmers Fellowship.

*Anitra Hamilton gratefully acknowledges the support of the Toronto Arts Council.

Exhibition hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10am to 5pm, Saturday, 11am to 5 pm, or by
appointment. To schedule an interview, request images or obtain more information
on the exhibition, please contact the gallery: 416.554.4112 or
info@georgiascherman.com.