Graham Hamilton’s exposure to Theta feels familiar yet quirky, like its title, “Dearly.” What a curious adverb. What the hell can you do if you do it dearly? “Dearly loved” initially evokes a wedding ceremony, although it is a particular marriage for those who are very loved; the minister can be Protestant but not a fire-eater; and it’s the 50s, maybe the 60s. “Cher” is so basic – it too is starting to show its age, its stillness. I myself still address correspondence with the greeting “Dear”, especially when writing to strangers, but this is all very affected, perhaps counterproductive. And so Hamilton’s show is steeped in affection, with one thing married to another, even if it’s so clever and cunning: contemporary latecomer.
Among the exhibited works—sculptures, serigraphs—is Parade 1, 2023. Its materials, as of the checklist, are “inkjet printing on cardboard, storage box, Gaudi bronze powder on water, bass drum pedal”. It’s a sublimely arty set, so everyday, but shot through with another world, like Gaudi bronze powder: made from the metal of sculpture since the highest antiquity; atomized, dematerialized, dispersed on the air, or rather on the water (and a name, like Antoni, architect of the Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona, industrialized Gothic is very niche modernism and very touristy all the same) . The bass drum pedal invites our participation, and with it certainly summons some art history lessons, moving from Dada and Duchamp through neo-Dada and Fluxus. I feel a little nervous saying that name, but let’s do it: John Cage. I’m thinking of Cage as he appears on the classic TV talk show/variety show I have a secretwhere he played Walk on the water, 1959. Earlier, host Garry Moore told the mage of dust and din and silences, “They’re nice people, but some of them will laugh.” Is everything okay?” Evoking one of Cage’s best retorts: “Sure. I consider laughter better than tears.
Although there are no obvious tears in Parade 1 or in “Dearly” as a whole, the show has a kind of barely there tenderness that is both wary and Cagean.
