Ann Hamilton at Yokohama Triennale 2005 Mayumi Hirano

When the artist Tadashi Kawamata was appointed as a director for Yokohama Triennale 2005, there were only 10 months left until the exhibition's opening on September 28th. He took full advantage of this peculiar circumstance and organized a lively art show of 86 artists and collaboratives. I had a chance to work with Ann Hamilton for this exhibition, and I think her work at the Triennale represents the improvisational quality that the exhibition has as a whole.

Ann Hamilton produced her installation/performance at Yokohama Triennale 2005 through email correspondence with participating climbers. She had not yet visited the site but instead worked from photographs and a floor plan of the exhibition space. She says, "All work happen [sic] by finding the right people and being in response and in conversation."

After considering the documentation shown to her by the Yokohama Triennale staff, Hamilton chose to work with the truss that supports the warehouse ceiling. Her e-mail on August 18, 2005 notes, "I am trying to develop a simple proposal for a single person/climber to move around the ceiling based on a length of rope or the measurement of the ceiling grids." The e-mail continues:

at a length - say 50 feet .... the person will pause, to make the sound of an insect with a hand held instrument until the climber perceives that someone below is listening to the call .... then pivoting off that point to climb to another place in the ceiling and repeating the gesture. The pattern of the rope in the ceiling will in time become a map of listening.

Quote ends here.

With this first proposal in mind, Hamilton, a novice climber, began a dialogue with several expert climbers. Learning about a system called lead climbing from Justin Roth, she decided to simplify her proposal. Hamilton's e-mail on September 1, 2005 says, "I believe it is better to have the work be the act of climbing through the ceiling with a red rope in a shape that traces a circle in the ceiling." With the help of a local climber, Daisuke Inoue, this proposal was further adjusted to fit the specific peculiarities encountered while climbing through the truss.

Titled "line," the final proposal included two climbers and a red climbing rope. The climbers wore simple white shirts and headlamps. The climbers also had i-pod's strapped to their waists. These ipod's periodically broadcast birdcalls throughout the space. The sound was soft and subtle. Since Hamilton wished the work to be understood as an evening ritual, all the performances began quietly an hour prior to sunset.

The climbers ascend to the ceiling by following an orange rope. The rope connects a point in the ceiling with the sidewall. Upon reaching a starting point high up in the ceiling truss, they secure themselves with the ends of a red rope. The lead climber moves around in the ceiling first, clipping the red rope to pre-installed carabineers. This happens while the second climber sits in a small swing installed at the starting point, feeding the red rope to the lead climber. When the lead climber reaches the last carabineer, which is at the starting point, he has used the red rope to trace a full circle in the ceiling truss. The circumference of the circle is about fifty meters. The first climber descends from the ceiling after completing his circle. While on the ground, he is careful to keep the rope taut so that the second climber can follow his route. The second climber traces the same path, purposefully unclipping the red rope from the carabineers. When the second climber finishes, the circle drawn with the rope is gone.

In this simple gesture of "handing the line end to end ... of gathering and letting out gathering and letting out," one can feel a crucial bond between the two climbers. The climbers are connected by a simple line, through which they become responsible for each other's lives. If one climber falls, it is the other climber's body weight that prevents him from hitting the ground. Thus, the line drawn with the 12mm thick rope is a line that sustains the lives of the climbers.

Each climber’s trip around the ceiling takes about 20 minutes, and it is not an easy route. Fighting the slope of the ceiling strains both climbers’ necks. The L-shaped truss material bites into their hands. The circle is drawn with great intensity and concentration, but as soon as a circle appears its erasure begins. Hamilton notes:

I think this really is in some ways the care for me of the gesture ... to close or draw a circle, a form that embraces and connects ... in a social or in a political sense ... to daily task between people and a daily challenge in the global world of many languages, cultures, climates and religions.