In Hand

In Hand: Contemporary Material Engagements with the Built World

September 22, 2023 – March 31, 2024

From brick to book, through impression and bonding, we continually find ourselves living with the material conditions of our human-built world. This exhibition reflects on the myriad ways that human bodies meet with built forms through material, malleable, and fragmentary exchanges.

• How do we access the places we inherit from generations long gone? 
• How can material intelligence transfer between people, between people and objects, and between objects and places? 
• Will the work of future world-building require a new kind of material production? 
• What does it mean to ask these questions of Southeast and Appalachian Ohio, considering its histories of material investment and disinvestment? 

In Hand considers these questions by creating a dialog between two contemporary artworks, both of which find artists speculating on the linkages between locational identity, material study, and social connection. The resulting experience invites us to imagine how handheld materials act as conduits for the transmission of values, forms, and ideas. 

Curated by Kate Hampel and Sam Dodd