Joe Hamilton
Regular Division, 2014

Description

Artist: Joe Hamilton, b. 1982
Title: Regular Division
Year created: 2014
Date minted: 9 October 2014
Format: A non-fungible token stored on the Bitcoin blockchain via the CounterParty XCP protocol.

A Truly Unique Token

Regular Division was one of the earliest artworks to be minted as a non-fungible token (NFT) in October 2014. The token was minted with the assistance of Kevin McCoy who also minted the first ever NFT for his own artwork Quantum, 4 months earlier. Many of the early NFTs were on the namecoin blockchain which are no longer directly transferable. Regular Division however was one of the early works minted on Bitcoin via the CounterParty protocol. This makes it unique as one of the earliest NFTs that remains directly transferable in its native format.

About the Artwork

“Joe Hamilton’s Regular Division takes enclosed environments as its subject. The video uses intricate, dynamic editing and layering to combine footage of several indoor gardens spread across the world. These glasshouses aim to recreate pristine environments in terms of foliage, atmosphere and temperatures. Hamilton’s video, however, lingers on the points where natural elements meet the physical structures that support the enclosed environments, such as walls, paths and glass ceilings. Across the surface of the video, as though suspended in virtual space, are brushstrokes that allude to the painterly landscapes of Vincent Van Gogh and Arthur Streeton, drawing a connection between the different ways in which landscapes have been manufactured as image and environment.” ― Simone Hine and Kyle Weise.

“A continual slow camera pan runs evenly across architectural greenhouses, lush vegetation, water features, elaborate stonework and ornate steelwork. As it passes languorously over and between disparate times and places the ambient sounds are penetrated by echoes of recognisable noises - a waterfall, voices, a snapped branch. The different locations likewise exist alongside each other and within each other’s pictorial space – a window frame reflects or offers sight of an alternate landscape, a walkway from England traverses vegetation from elsewhere. Further defining and confusing the sense of space are abstracted brush marks from traditional landscape paintings.” ― Hannah Redler

The Artist

Joe Hamilton (b. 1982 Tasmania) makes use of technology and found material to create intricate and complex compositions online, offline and in-between. His recent work questions our established notions of the natural environment within a society that is becoming increasingly networked.
Hamilton holds a BFA from the University of Tasmania and an MA from RMIT in Melbourne. His work has been shown to great extent internationally with group exhibitions at The Moving Museum Istanbul, The Austrian Film Museum, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and The New Museum in New York.