BECOMING INVISIBLE

Becoming Invisible is the result of a two months intensive residency program Tom Hall undertook this May/June at Sculpture Space in Utica, NY and sponsored through the New York State Council on the Arts. Drawing from discovered old photographic images of birth mothers, shrouded in cloth or patterned carpets to hide identity, with their adoptive children in their laps. The work was an attempt to get closer to the separation of the sitters, to understand the anonymity of the birth mother. These ghostly pictures seem like a scene from a Hammer Horror film, but they also tap into the personal fears of the artist as an adoptive parent twice over, and the slow isolation as children grow and the adult realization that the biological tie is stronger than the parental.

The work consists of a hand cut glass mirrored carpet. There are over 12,000 pieces of glass and was a time consuming labour of love. The carpet obscures the form of the Artist/Father underneath, becoming nameless and the mirrors reflect the surroundings, picking up the colours of the floor walls, blending in, becoming invisible. The final outcome of this iteration was a filmed performance made by the artists adopted son and shot in the renowned Sculpture Hall at Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Museum in Utica.