23.02.15 – 02.04.15 Maidstone Museum, Kent
‘The hand is the visible part of the brain.’ Immanuel Kant
Hands express our inner self and so there is an infinite array of gestures representing our emotions, supporting our communication, helping us carrying out tasks, simple or very complex and precise.
My hands are my most precious tools. Many artists feel this way; Henry Moore drew many hands and made the 1950 bronze sculptures displayed in the Maidstone museum and which generated this response.
This collection of hands evokes William C Stokoe’s taxonomy of gestures, from arbitrary to iconic and cultural to primate. Sometimes they also evoke the response of other artists, such as Bruce Nauman.
supporting hands
Bruce Nauman’s hands
protective hand
come here hand
Merce Cunningham’s dancing hands
fist
Friendship hands
I love you hand
praying hands
sign language hands
resting hand
sermon hand
mounie’s hand
shadow hand
‘Stop’ hand gesture
Pointing finger hand
complementing hand
writing hand
