A Small World

- An exhibition and a workshop
By Fiona Whitton (AU) and Sean Dockray (US)

Who was Betty Hamilton? What was her aim in life? How did it happened that the Danish born lady ended up living most of her life in Desert Hot Springs California?

The only thing we know for sure is that Betty Hamilton in the late 1970's crafted a tiny museum of historical events made of dioramas. The dioramas were three-dimensional miniature models and depicting for instance the Coliseum complete with Romans fighting the lions; beheading of Anne Boleyn and a Black Sabbath concert with Tony Iommi collapsed onstage. The dioramas were made out off odds and ends and small castaway objects such as split ping-pong balls, an air conditioner filter, garter pins, hair curlers, thumbtacks and Hamilton's own hair.

Now the artists Fiona Whitton and Sean Dockray bring the story of Betty Hamilton back to Denmark, where it began, many decades ago. Together with the students from Art and Architecture departments they will be building 7 dioramas to be used as sets for a single stop-motion video, which speculates on the life of this forgotten woman. The 7 dioramas will be exhibited in the KBH Kunsthal cases and the video will be screened on the final night. As a starting point with the diorama boxes the artists wishes to put emphasis on migration, loss, and obsolescence – notions that are foundation in the story of the life of Betty Hamilton.

Fiona Whitton is an architect and curator. Sean Dockray is an artist and writer. Together they direct Telic Arts Exchange, a space in Chinatown, Los Angeles, producing a critical engagement with new media and culture. Telic often distorts curatorial conventions to create experimental exhibitions, scenarios, and projects that occasionally throw its own institutional identity into question. Some of these include The Fundraising Show, The Public School, and Games for 5 Joysticks. They both live and work in Los Angeles, US.

A text on the life of Betty Hamilton written by Sean Dockray and puplished in the magazine Bidoun can downloads here. The film made together with the students on Betty Hamilton can be downloaded here (quicktime).