1 00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,000 [Ann Hamilton: "the event of a thread"] 2 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,000 [Sound of static and a woman's voice coming from a radio speaker] 3 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:27,000 [Sound of static and a man's voice coming from a radio speaker] 4 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:57,000 My first hand is a sewing hand--is a weaving hand-- 5 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,000 is that connection between text and textiles. 6 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:06,000 The title of the work is "the event of a thread" 7 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:10,000 and that comes from Anni Albers, whose description of weaving 8 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,000 is a horizontal and vertical crossing of a thread, 9 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:18,000 which is touch and contact at intersection. 10 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:22,000 The cloth is raising and lowering with the swings. 11 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:27,000 Everyone's presence registers in some way in the materials of it. 12 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,000 And that, in turn, makes its weaving. 13 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,000 [sound of audience echoing throughout the hall] 14 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:54,000 [Sound of static and a woman's voice coming from a radio speaker] 15 00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:59,000 [MAN] "Discordant pieces of science." 16 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:04,000 [MAN] "One man's injustice" 17 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,000 [MAN, THROUGH RADIO SPEAKER] "is another's injustice." 18 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,000 [HAMILTON] At the beginning, we wondered if people would even swing. 19 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,000 We're like, "I hope they don't just hang there." 20 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:17,000 There's something that happens when you swing. 21 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:24,000 I'm sure there's a neurological explanation for the sense of pleasure that you feel, 22 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:27,000 and I think people are giving over to that. 23 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:33,000 There was a family in here yesterday that was here for three hours. 24 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,000 So, it's sort of become like a park. 25 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 I think one of the things that's here is it's very intimate, 26 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,000 and yet, it's kind of very large and anonymous-- 27 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:56,000 so this quality of solitude and being in a congregation or group of people. 28 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,000 I think the feeling of that is actually very comforting, 29 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,000 and something that we need. 30 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:10,000 In the middle, under the cloth, 31 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:13,000 I knew it would be a really wonderful place to stand-- 32 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:19,000 to have the turbulence and the liquidity of the cloth fall around you. 33 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:23,000 But, I was totally unprepared for the fact that people would lay down on the floor 34 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:27,000 and stay horizontal for a long long time. 35 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,000 I decided early on that I was going to stay for the duration of the show, 36 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:44,000 and every day is a little bit different, 37 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:47,000 and every day there's some other kind of interaction 38 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:51,000 that it's almost...it holds the piece back up to me. 39 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:06,000 There was a girl who said that she felt really really wild and safe at the same time. 40 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000 When I heard that...you know, it's like, "Yes! That is great." 41 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:14,000 There's so many of those kinds of things, 42 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:19,000 so you're trying to give or make the opportunity for that kind of experience-- 43 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,000 but not determine what that is-- 44 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,000 that in turn, there's so much that's coming back 45 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,000 from what people are giving into the work. 46 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,000 Being here and being present to feel that is tremendously satisfying. 47 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,000 [CHILDREN: "Whoa!"]