inga dawn hamilton

Inga Hamilton; a fibre sculptress living an adventurous life.

Inga Hamilton, creator of sculptures, interventions & installations crafted from discarded materials and fibres.
www.rockpoolcandy.com

BIO
Inga Hamilton aka rockpool candy, fibre activist. b 1970
Inga Hamilton's been driven by a life-long obsession with fibrecrafts. She’s spent her life in training, gathering discarded skills and applying them to fibres and waste materials.

Embracing low-fi equipment that she often builds herself, this artist pares back the nonsense and dives into her sculptures. Nothing is impossible. Travelling the world, seeking out like-minded craftspeople willing to teach her their traditions, she takes what she learns and applies it to the free materials she finds around her at the time. Many of her sculptures are transient, natural forms, left in woodland settings for animals to inhabit and the elements to reclaim.

Inga has built a reputation as an enthusiastic fibre activist. She works with local fleeces, dyeing, spinning, weaving and crocheting them into rich fabrics and exquisite natural forms.

STATEMENT
It’s the easiest thing in the World to create art that shocks, but I want to touch your heart. I want time to stop as you become lost in the intricacy of my work. I want you to be seized with a childlike desire to be enveloped in its texture. If I can achieve this in just the tiniest way, I’m a happy woman.

“I use beauty to suck people in, then sock ’em in the shins with my message.”

HISTORY OF ARTISTIC PRACTICE
February 2011. The Ark, Children's Cultural Centre, Dublin. Ireland.
Crafted Creatures. Including a four-storey installation of sea creatures by Inga Hamilton.

January 2011. FE McWilliams, Banbridge. Northern Ireland
Print in 3D. An enormous installation landscape of crocheted and printed fungi with a hand-made paper sculpture hanging above.

November 2010. Shiplake College. Henley-on-Thames, UK.
Artist in residence. Layered Art – building composite images using found printed materials.

November 2010. University of Ulster, Belfast, UK.
‘Crafted Collection – V&A swarm’, sea creatures created from discarded materials.

October - November 2010. Alternative Ink Tattoos. Holywood, NI.
Live Paint. 9 artists creating finished artwork in front of the public in 8 hours.

June 2010. Prince’s Trust, Baron’s Court, Newtownstewart, NI.
Clay Pigeon Shoot. Teaching on a C12th spinning wheel with found materials.

June 2010. Ulster Festival of Art and Design. University of Ulster, Belfast, NI.
Funny Bones and Cross Bones. Workshop teaching students to explore their 2D or 3D brain.

April 2009. International Fibre Collaborative
Annual grant judge.

April 2010. Mathematics ‘Textures’ conference, Riga, Latvia.
The Collapse of Infinite Joy. Crocheted sculpture requested by Dr Daina Taimina.

March 2010. Alternative Ink Tattoos. Holywood, NI.
Shock & Awwwwww! Joint show with MyTarpit. Exploring human interactions and the feminisation of surgical steel.

December-January 2010. Oak Hammock Farm, Wesley Chapel, FL, USA.
Artist in residence. Exploring sculptural, weaving, spinning & fibre techniques.

November 2009. Pyramid Atlantic. Silver Spring, MD. USA
Artists in residence. Exploring 3D papermaking and sculptural techniques, bookbinding and printmaking.

October 2009. Twisted, Portland, OR, USA.
Twisted Halloween. Setting the World Record for using the largest crochet hook.

October 2009. St Lawrence University, Canton, NY, USA.
Artist in residence. Neolithic weaving, fibre activism & outdoor installations. Bookbinding, printmaking and creating pop-up galleries in woodland.

September 2009. Jelly, Town Centre, Reading, UK.
Let Me Ease Your Day intervention. Reconnecting people with textiles to gift on in random acts of kindness.

September 2009. Alternative Village Fete, Southbank, London, UK.
Let Me Ease Your Day intervention. Reconnecting people with textiles to gift on in random acts of kindness.

August/September 2009. Shiplake College. Henley-on-Thames, UK.
Artist in residence. Building neolithic looms and C12th spinning wheels with found materials. Working alongside students to create stencils, moss art, natural letterforms, bone wrapping, sculpting and drawing.

July 2009. Royal Ulster Hall, Belfast, UK.
Let Me Ease Your Day intervention. Reconnecting people with textiles to gift on in random acts of kindness.
Underground Overground. Exhibited Giant Monster soft sculpture.

June 2009. Rome, Italy.
Crack! Festival. Decorating an ancient fort prison cell with graffiti-inspired textiles.

June 2009. Coventry, UK.
Ravelry Day. Live sculpture. Arm Crocheting furniture.

May 2009. Dive Show, Birmingham, UK.
Marine Conservation Society. Jellyfish Smack sculpture

May 2009. Wonderwool Wales, Builth, Wales, UK.
Invited to exhibit with Prudence Mapstone, doyen of freeform crochet. Pink Reef.

April 2009. International Fibre Collaborative
Annual grant judge.

February 2009. Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, UK.
UK DIY. Live sculpture. Arm crocheting a Giant Bacteria sculpture in front of the UK Culture Minister. Micropower. Crocheted micro-organism installations with Ildiko Szabo.

November 2008. Alexander McQueen. Gucci.
Gucci commissioned bespoke yarns for Alexander McQueen's autumn collection.

September 2008. Clarence House, London, UK.
Prince Charles’ Marine Conservation Society 25th Anniversary party. Jellyfish Smack sculpture

August 2008. Pom Pom International Tour, Northern Ireland.
Pom Poms for Peace. Bringing the community together through fibre interventions.

August 2008- May 2009. ICHF, touring, UK
Re-use, recycle. Large underwater installation. Great White Reef, Jellyfish Smack & plastic forms.

June 2008. Hayward Gallery, Southbank, London, UK.
The Hyperbolic Crocheted Coral reef. Pink Reef, Green Reef & Spawning Wall sculptures.

June 2008. Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank, London, UK.
The Art and Craft of Saving the World symposium. Created a Giant Jellyfish sculpture on stage to engage the world's leading mathematicians and scientists with craft.

September-December 2008. Memorial Art Gallery, Yale College, Wrexham.
Sustainable/Recycled. Great White Reef sculpture & Recycled Plastic Reef Dwellers.

April 2008. World Financial Centre, New York, NY, USA.
The Hyperbolic Crocheted Coral reef. Enormous Jellyfish Smack & Recycled Plastic Reef Dwellers.

December 2007. Across UK.
LUSH Christmas windows. Joy Tree recycled-plastic bottle sculptures commissioned for top 12 stores.

October 2007. Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, IL. USA
The Hyperbolic Crocheted Coral reef. Pink Reef, Green Reef & Spawning Wall sculptures.

Planned for 2011

2011. Trinity College, Dublin. Ireland
Stretched String Theory. Building a working sculpture to prove the mathematical theories of Professor Stefan Hutzler. To be filmed in action in The Science Gallery.

2011. Ithaca, New York, U.S.A
The Equation of Women in Mathematics . An exploration of mathematical sculptures with world-renowned mathematican Dr Daina Taimina.

www.rockpoolcandy.com
“I use beauty to suck people in, then sock ’em in the shins with my message.”