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 commissioned artist Elisa Hamilton to create Slideshow, a multi-media 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, every day lives on view to the public. This group — entrepreneurs, activists, educators and artists — are the heart and soul of Slideshow.
Photo by Jean Hangarter
about the piece
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.
Photo by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano
UPCOMING:
ISABELLA STEWART GARDENER MUSEUM, MARCH 24, 2018
On March 24, 2018, Elisa Hamilton and the ten original women will reunite as part of the Life in Stories Festival, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to create an intimate, communal story-sharing space in the Museum’s Living Room.
““I want the city to meet and know these women who are leading strong, generous lives everyday right here in Boston.””
LAURA BOSTON
TIFFANY COGELL
CAMILA DE CASTRO
SABRINA DORSAINVIL
CHARLA JONES
NINA LaNEGRA
ABIGAIL NORMAN
LOLITA B. PARKER JR.
AUDREY ROBERT-RAMIREZ
CLARISSA LYNN ROBERTSON
ABOUT THE ARTIST: ELISA H. HAMILTON
“I think we need to be able to acknowledge the past to shape our future.”
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.
Slideshow artist Elisa H. Hamilton.
Photo by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano
ORIGINALLY PRODUCED in conjunction with hubweek
The HUB on City Hall Plaza - HUBWeek 2017
Taking place in and around a shipping container located in the HUB at City Hall Plaza, Slideshow created a community viewing and conversation space. The eleven slide presentations, created by the women along with one by the artist, took place at the container between October 12 and 15, 2017. When not activated with a slide talk, the shipping container was a place for the public to touch, hold, and examine the women's slides together on an communal light table with a magnifying loupe.
This exploration of older technology provided a direct connection to the women and their stories. Through this tangible medium we exposed how sharing our authentic lived experience and showing vulnerability fosters mutual understanding and respect in our city.
Founded in December 2014 by The Boston Globe, Harvard University, MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital, HUBweek is a first-of-its-kind civic collaboration and weeklong festival that brings together the most creative and inventive minds making an impact in art, science and technology.
HUBWeek believes in collaboration, inclusivity and, above all, impact. It has built a community of thousands of smart, curious, creative people working hard to build a better future. We hope you’ll join us there October 12 - 15.