Project Description

Ann Hamilton’s artwork wraps the station’s glass entry pavilion in woven lines inspired by the significance of the station’s downtown location and the surrounding hub of cultural institutions as a place of crossings, intersections and exchanges. As travelers, our individual paths create a web of unrecorded and invisible crossings. The vinyl artwork at Grand Av Arts/Bunker Hill Station captures the trace of path and crossing visible as hand-drawn “threads,” and, through repetition, expand them into a pattern that weaves throughout the gridded facades of the two-story glass entry pavilion. Transit riders are held by this luminous translucent cloth—evoking both sky and water, light and line, pathways and architectural textile—as they enter and exit the station.

Artist Statement

“Each line of the Metro system is one thread in the weave that holds the larger system together. In this part-to-whole, relationship, a piece of cloth similarly derives its strength when each thread does its part.” 

About the Artist

ANN HAMILTON (b. 1956, Lima, Ohio) centers metaphorical structures and material processes of textiles as large-scale site-responsive installations, performance collaborations, print media and public projects. Inspired by histories and geographies of place, Hamilton’s artworks often juxtapose expressions of language and tactile materiality to explore relationships between the individual and the collective. Hamilton earned a BFA in textile design from the University of Kansas and an MFA in sculpture from the Yale School of Art. She represented the United States in the 1991 Sao Paulo Biennale and the 1999 Venice Biennale. Hamilton is a Distinguished University Professor Emerita in the Department of Art at The Ohio State University. Among her many honors, Hamilton has been the recipient of the National Medal of the Arts, Heinz Award, MacArthur Fellowship and more.

Learn More About the Artist and Artwork

• Artists selected for Regional Connector project