By Spencer Schneier, Staff Writer

Published in print Aug. 27, 2014

On a beautiful Thursday night in the historical district of Greensboro, Elsewhere museum and collaborative art space held an Artist Talk for new resident-artist Elizabeth Hamilton.

Elsewhere is an exceptional setting, and a glimpse into humans and our interactions with the environment around us. Framed by an open window-front, the museum is the site of a former thrift shop-turned collaborative art- project.

Hamilton came to Elsewhere from Philadelphia and plies her trade in sculpting, installation and photography.  She detailed her past works to a crowd of fellow artists as well as casual passers-by.

Hamilton, a former painter (before she realized she could better express herself through sculpture and other methods due to their “physicality”), addressed the idea that Elsewhere is unique when discussing her motives for joining the collaborative museum.

“The idea that you can work with this collection and then it goes back into itself was really exciting,” she said.

It’s that very idea that makes Elsewhere difficult to define, but captivating to the observer. Much in the way that humans interact with the environment, Elsewhere facilitates different artistic voices and minds expressing themselves using only their surroundings.

Hamilton addressed this, talking about how she finds “comfort in the cycle.” She has expressed this in some of her previous works, including I’ve Burned All Your Bed Sheets. Her presentation was opened with a discussion of the aforementioned piece, in which she talked about burning her late grandmother’s bed sheets. Her grandmother was instrumental in raising her, a fact that she referenced multiple times during her presentation.

It is the very cycle that Hamilton references which it appears Elsewhere looks to capture. Objects once meant for carrying clothing, being played with by children and various other uses that were simplistic and household all become forms of artistic expression.

Providing a community experience is central to what Elsewhere looks to accomplish. They have resident artists and even offer memberships that allow for locals to eat meals with them.

Jennie Carlisle, Production Curator, spoke of special events such as bands on First Friday, and how members get home-cooked meals (which she suggested should attract many college students!).

One thing that Hamilton mentioned when asked about her view of what Elsewhere conveys to the community seems to echo this sentiment.

“Art can be a collaboration and it can be one where half the party is unknowingly collaborating,” said Hamilton. Visitors to the museum are encouraged to move objects around and participate.

It is this aspect which furthers Elsewhere as a metaphor for human interaction with the world around us. The cyclical give-and-take of the interaction between visitors and artists furthers this.

The history of Elsewhere explains the unique collection of items amassed there. Sylvia Gray, a single mother with three children, originally ran a store in its current location in order to feed her family.

While it took on a myriad of identities, it ended up as a cluttered thrift shop with hardly enough room for one to walk around in.

She ran the shop until the day before her death in 1997. The shop was boarded up, with her enormous collection of items hidden away until her grandchildren visited in 2003 and fell in love. They turned it into the art collaboration that Elsewhere continues to this day.

Nothing can enter or leave the museum, which makes the artistic variation on display an impressive mark of human creativity.

It is fitting that Hamilton’s artist talk mentioned the loss of her grandmother and the effect it had on her work.

She burned the bed sheets, and now she is going to collaborate on the thrift shop.    Thus is the beauty of humans, art and the world around us.