Walter Hamady : Search Engine (Art Chicago)
April 28 - May 2, 2011
Main Gallery
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Walter Hamady
(Another interstice piece) / a certain
2005-2008
Petite Belicoso Maduro cigar box bottom, small metal box with lid embossed, pre-WWI Italian postcard, optical sort of prism, antique pocket watch face, strip of Italian espresso coffee can, prosthetic eye from Dale Beeks, Plexiglas, small screws and washers, Plexiglas scratched by artist to enhance ambience of visual composition—gad, what a mouthful that!
6.75 x 7.75 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
(B)NS Box #57 / the void of senselessness2005
Rehinged Pléades cigar box, thinned cloakroom board from Eleanor Moty, French pastilles tin, round Badge-a-Minit pin portrait with eye in bone, British military cap badge pin separated, interior of gauge, camera parts, German postal exprés stamp, Italian currency, cognac label.
7.25 x 7.75 x 2 inches
Walter Hamady
(NS No. 14 / the difference for there to be a2002
Cigar box of former box No. 194 (destroyed), Cutty
8 x 15.75 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
(Another interstice piece) / parallel structures2008
Sectioned cigar box, imprinted wooden crate wood, cloak-room hook board stencils covered by framed lantern slide (small frame made by Paul Douglas), Viennese playing card heart, Nappanee cigar band, Pocahontas postcard, brass flat spring from antique contact printer, camera innards, steel engraved eyes, 11 point magnesium printing plate gessoed and inked, blackwrap coated aluminum, spirit level, red German post office label.
9 x 14 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
(extrapolation) / ball bearing JG62011
Old stressed “western shape” cigar box, bicycle
9 x 12.75 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
(NS #22 / it is always possible to suspend2005
Microscope slide storage box (gutted), brass piano hinge (mini), mould board, typewriter and camera innards, brass storm window tacks, primer cap, crate wood, Badge-A-Minit with collage, British Militaria cap pin modified.
11.5 x 15.5 x 1.5 inches
Walter Hamady
(B)NS Box #56 / spirit destined to become2005
Microscope slide storage box from Kennedy Gilchrist, M.D., Numen lumen book cover, lens ring, camera part, printer’s reglet, rubber stamp mould board, steel engraving of eyes, German lady with bustle from “Uber land und meer” c. 1889.
12.25 x 16 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
NS #24 / uncertain whether witnesses or2002
Black microscope glass slide storage box (gutted) from Kennedy Gilchrist, flocking, s.s. hinge from small parts, frisket knife, printer’s furniture and reglet blackened by ink and time, typewriter and camera innards, lid of marbled Italian box gift from James & Gillian, carved board from artist’s barn “Anderson,” mouse chewing.
11.25 x 16.75 x 1 inches
Walter Hamady
Box 180 / clearly mental/modal contexts1997
Corona natural cigar box, Queen egg incubator piece
9.75 x 12.75 x 1.75 inches
Walter Hamady
Box # 5 (Second Altered Baedeker) / these don’t1989
Baedeker’s Schweiz guide book (date unknown),
9.5 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches
Walter Hamady
Box # 5 (Second Altered Baedeker) / these don’t1989
Baedeker’s Schweiz guide book (date unknown),
9.5 x 9.5 x 1.5 inches
Walter Hamady
NS Box #1 / minimalist exemplar2002
Round-sided cigar box double hinge, crate wood,
11.5 x 9.25 x 4.5 inches
Walter Hamady
A Sketch for Anna (a new little box)2002
assemblage
4.25 x 2.75 x 4 (closed); 4.25 x 8 x 1.75 (open) inches
Walter Hamady
Box 113 / The Mormon Tabernacle / not1991
B,
28.5 x 13 x 8.5 inches
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Installation view, Art Chicago
Press Release
Walter Hamady is a legend among artist book designers. Since 1964, he has run Perishable Press, where he published ingenious, immaculate, intricate small-edition books featuring poetry by luminaries such as Robert Creeley and Paul Blackburn. He has often referred to books as “the Trojan Horse of art,” thinking of the way they sneak artistic ideas into a familiar, handleable format. All along, Hamady, who is based in rural Wisconsin, made collages and assemblages, equally astonishing in conception and execution. In CvsD’s Art Chicago booth, Hamady’s fascinating, neo-Dada boxes, built of deconstructed cameras and all sorts of fetishistic materials and then mounted in cigar boxes (making them book-like diptychs), will have pride of place along with select examples of the artist’s Gabberjabs, which are virtuosic books that completely blur the distinction between design and art in the bound context. A 48-page catalog including an essay by Robert Cozzolino will be available.