PATRICK HAMILTON

(Lovaina, Bélgica, 1974)

Hamilton’s practice questions neoliberalism and the basic concepts of work, history, and spectacle through a peculiarly Chilean logic that began with the economic revolution instigated by Augusto Pinochet and the Chicago Boys. In keeping with that critical idea, the artist’s Santiago Dérive Project (2006-08) consists of three elements: a wall covered by faux marble wallpaper, an archive of over two-hundred black and white photographs of delivery tricycles—a mainstay of Santiago’s informal economy—and a customized delivery tricycle with a built-in lightbox that displays an image of Santiago’s financial district, unironically called Sanhattan. Both an inventory of different typologies and a biting critique of a present-day economic system, Hamilton’s installation explores Santiago through the different “sculpted” transformations these tricycles present.