Art on Campus: Ann Hamilton

‘O N E E V E R Y O N E · St. Louis’ installed in Hillman Hall

The lift of a chin. The flash of an eye. The brush of a hand. The gestures are both intimate and declarative, public and private, interior and exterior — like whispered secrets held in confidence.

Last spring, artist Ann Hamilton spent weeks in St. Louis photographing nearly 300 people through a translucent film of thermoplastic polyurethane. Participants included students, faculty and staff in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as members of the larger St. Louis community recruited by three partner organizations: U.S. Vets, Better Family Life and the Community Action Agency of St. Louis County.

The result is “O N E E V E R Y O N E · St. Louis,” a 33-panel public art project installed in the Brown School’s Thomas and Jennifer Hillman Hall — and the latest installment in Art on Campus, Washington University’s percent-for-art program.

Though located across the Danforth Campus, all Art on Campus commissions are accessioned into the permanent collection of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts.

Other recent projects include Spencer Finch’s “East Meets West” in Karl D. Umrath Hall; Jaume Plensa’s “Ainsa I” at the south entrance to the atrium for the Olin Business School’s Bauer Hall; and Ayşe Erkmen’s “Places” outside Samuel Cupples Hall II.