CITY HALL PLAZA
Elisa H. Hamilton
Slideshow, 2017
One creative vision. Ten women's stories. And a slide projector.
Community storytelling is one of the oldest human art forms. It helps us build understanding, empathy, respect, and connection. In the Fall of 2017, Now + There, now known as Boston Public Art Triennial, commissioned artist Elisa Hamilton to create Slideshow, a multimedia project for HUBWeek's free event space on Boston’s City Hall Plaza. Using photography, analog slides, and storytelling, Hamilton and ten other Boston-area women put their gutsy, generous, everyday lives on view to the public. This group — entrepreneurs, activists, educators and artists — are the heart and soul of Slideshow.
Originally commissioned for HUBWeek 2017, Slideshow is a communal storytelling and photography series. The original iteration featured curated slide talks and an interactive photo exhibit created by the artist and ten Boston-area women. Each talk featured 25 images representing a week in the presenter's life.
Slideshow invites participants to share in the day-to-day work, family life, and social context of each featured woman through photo sharing, storytelling, and community interaction. By examining how analog technology remains relevant in a digital world, Slideshow fosters intimate dialogue about why face-to-face experiences are critical to building relationships and creating change.
“I want the city to meet and know these women who are leading strong, generous lives everyday right here in Boston.” — Elisa H. Hamilton
LOCATION
City Hall Plaza
CITY HALL PLAZA
Elisa H. Hamilton
Elisa is a multimedia artist whose practice focuses on the creation of inclusive artworks that emphasize shared experiences and the inherent joy of our everyday places, objects, and experiences. A New England native, she is a proud graduate of Massachusetts College of Art and Design where she earned her BFA in Painting in 2007 and now serves on the Board of Trustees. Her work has been shown locally and nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Her ongoing project Dance Spot has engaged with a variety of communities all around Boston, as well as at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, and Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA. She has been the recipient of four public art grants to create temporary public works in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood, and a Creative City grant from New England Foundation for the Arts. She has held artist residencies with Vermont Studio Center, Boston Center for the Arts, the Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts, and the Fenway Alliance. Recent projects include Community Legacy, a participatory installation at the MIT List Center, Cambridge, MA, and Sound Lab, a special community sound project that was featured in Listen Hear: The Art of Sound at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Hamilton continues her practice at her South End studio at Boston Center for the Arts.