Facões, serrotes, grades, cartões postais…: Patrick Hamilton

The most recent work by Chilean artist Patrick Hamilton points to a recurring theme in his oeuvre: the manipulation of objects and images with strong social, economic, and cultural symbolism.

The machetes and saws are tools from a primary economy whose image has almost become invisible in the current production system. The grilles—objects of defense and segmentation in contemporary architecture—reveal another of the artist’s concerns: the implicit violence in the current social divide imposed by inequality.

Hamilton’s use of these elements in his installations seeks the “liberation of the object,” while also bringing renewed attention to tools that have become nearly invisible in today’s cultural landscape.

On the occasion of Chile’s Bicentennial, Hamilton created the series “Postales” (“Postcards”). These cards act as a kind of promotional tourism window, but offer idyllic, manipulated, and almost surrealist versions of a world that, in reality, does not exist and conceals social and territorial conflicts. Through cutting, perforation, and manipulation, the artist exposes the fragility of these images and their representations.

In these acts of “cuts” and “ruptures,” Hamilton reveals contemporary social and architectural systems, referencing the deconstruction and re-creation of his thought, in constant dialogue with the work of American artist Gordon Matta-Clark.