Emma Hamilton: Indirect Image

During a residency in Paris, Emma Hamilton re-photographed photographs by the sculptor Brancusi from the Pompidou Centre archives, as well as Brancusi’s studio, preserved behind glass. Each instance a mediated view of his work.

Hamilton later photocopied small prints of her photographs at the Pompidou’s Bibliothèque Kandinsky, holding the photographs in her hands while the photocopier calibrated images from above.

The different layers of the work: Brancusi’s photographic documentation of his sculptures, Hamilton’s photographs of his images and the mediation of the photocopier, operate in tandem with the reflections of light from the photographed surfaces. They form a three-dimensional space within the photocopied page, complicating the distinctions between object and image.

While both photography and the photocopy are ordinarily means of infinite reproduction, here each image is singular. Each photocopy scaled and cropped by a machine, each hand gesture of a moment.

Emma Hamilton is a Melbourne-based artist who has a keen interest in the materiality of the photograph. Oscillating between sculpture and photography, her practice operates at the intersection between these mediums. In 2014 she was awarded the Australia Council Paris studio, where she produced Indirect Image.