WEBVTT 00:00:07.645 --> 00:00:12.249 [Ann Hamilton: "the event of a thread"] 00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:18.088 [Sound of static and a woman's voice coming from a radio speaker] 00:00:23.825 --> 00:00:27.131 [Sound of static and a man's voice coming from a radio speaker] 00:00:54.157 --> 00:00:57.994 My first hand is a sewing hand--is a weaving hand-- 00:00:58.241 --> 00:01:01.965 is that connection between text and textiles. 00:01:02.465 --> 00:01:06.001 The title of the work is "the event of a thread" 00:01:06.574 --> 00:01:10.974 and that comes from Anni Albers, whose description of weaving 00:01:10.974 --> 00:01:14.445 is a horizontal and vertical crossing of a thread, 00:01:14.445 --> 00:01:18.348 which is touch and contact at intersection. 00:01:19.417 --> 00:01:22.385 The cloth is raising and lowering with the swings. 00:01:22.385 --> 00:01:27.407 Everyone's presence registers in some way in the materials of it. 00:01:27.407 --> 00:01:30.827 And that, in turn, makes its weaving. 00:01:46.544 --> 00:01:50.246 [sound of audience echoing throughout the hall] 00:01:51.574 --> 00:01:54.518 [Sound of static and a woman's voice coming from a radio speaker] 00:01:54.518 --> 00:01:59.707 [MAN] "Discordant pieces of science." 00:02:01.740 --> 00:02:04.161 [MAN] "On man's injustice" 00:02:04.161 --> 00:02:07.597 [MAN, THROUGH RADIO SPEAKER] "is another's injustice." 00:02:07.964 --> 00:02:10.433 [HAMILTON] At the beginning, we wondered if people would even swing. 00:02:10.433 --> 00:02:13.936 We're like, "I hope they don't just hang there." 00:02:13.990 --> 00:02:17.340 There's something that happens when you swing. 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:24.314 I'm sure there's a neurological explanation for the sense of pleasure that you feel, 00:02:24.448 --> 00:02:27.750 and I think people are giving over to that. 00:02:29.085 --> 00:02:33.022 There was a family in here yesterday that was here for three hours. 00:02:33.124 --> 00:02:37.161 So, it's sort of become like a park. 00:02:43.967 --> 00:02:47.270 I think one of the things that's here is it's very intimate, 00:02:47.270 --> 00:02:49.991 and yet, it's kind of very large and anonymous-- 00:02:49.991 --> 00:02:56.241 so this quality of solitude and being in a congregation or group of people. 00:02:56.241 --> 00:02:59.616 I think the feeling of that is actually very comforting, 00:02:59.616 --> 00:03:02.957 and something that we need. 00:03:08.625 --> 00:03:10.861 In the middle, under the cloth, 00:03:10.861 --> 00:03:13.496 I knew it would be a really wonderful place to stand-- 00:03:13.496 --> 00:03:19.374 to have the turbulence and the liquidity of the cloth fall around you. 00:03:19.569 --> 00:03:23.775 But, I was totally unprepared for the fact that people would lay down on the floor 00:03:23.775 --> 00:03:27.777 and stay horizontal for a long long time. 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:41.991 I decided early on that I was going to stay for the duration of the show, 00:03:41.991 --> 00:03:44.074 and every day is a little bit different, 00:03:44.074 --> 00:03:47.164 and every day there's some other kind of interaction 00:03:47.164 --> 00:03:51.134 that it's almost...it holds the piece back up to me. 00:04:00.277 --> 00:04:06.617 There was a girl who said she felt really really wild and safe at the same time. 00:04:06.617 --> 00:04:11.907 When I heard that...you know, it's like, "Yes! That is great." 00:04:11.907 --> 00:04:14.925 There's so many of those kinds of things, 00:04:14.925 --> 00:04:19.128 so you're trying to give or make the opportunity for that kind of experience-- 00:04:19.128 --> 00:04:21.407 but not determine what that is-- 00:04:21.407 --> 00:04:24.907 that in turn, there's so much that's coming back 00:04:24.907 --> 00:04:27.604 from what people are giving into the work. 00:04:27.604 --> 00:04:33.541 Being here and being present to feel that is tremendously satisfying. 00:04:41.407 --> 00:04:44.654 [CHILDREN: "Whoa!"]