ABOUT
‘If I were called in to construct a religion, I should make use of water.’
Philip Larkin
Distil Ennui Studio™, founded by artist Alexander James Hamilton in 1990, offers photographic works, editions and objects for you and the home. Its catalogue brings together photography, sculpture, textiles, ceramics and recycled aluminium hardware, alongside The Legacy Collection, a photographic archive available for rights managed licensing.
These works emerge from a practice grounded in analogue photography, physical experimentation and an enduring interest in materials. Making is a form of research: ideas are tested through process, utility and durability, with close attention to what materials can do and how they are used.
The studio’s history includes artist residencies, circular design workshops and environmental and cultural projects. From Makers Place in the Maldives to Renaciendo in Spain, this work extends beyond the studio into recycling, restoration, education and the life of the communities involved.
Alexander James Hamilton’s principal artistic practice, theory and writings can be explored at AlexanderJamesHamilton.com.
Selected works and studio projects
Photographic Works, Editions & Objects
Photographic works to enrich your home, sculpture, textiles, lighting, ceramics and recycled aluminium handles for doors and drawers in the kitchen and bathroom. These objects carry the studio’s interest in light, form and material provenance into the home.
Circular Design & Community Projects
Makers Place, Maldives
A working carbon neutral recycling studio where discarded single use plastic and aluminium are upcycled into a new life.
Related projects include Designing a Circular Future workshops, Waste to Wealth and the artist’s own programme of solar stills that turn salt water into fresh water.
Residencies & Cultural Projects
Dark Vat Artist Residency
A seismic project that is still influencing the region´s arts landscape today hosted in a former photographic paper factory in Krasnoyarsk.
Red October Studio
Notes from the studio on experimentation, failure and the need to keep making.
Renaciendo, Spain
Reopening a Carmelite convent in Budia through restoration and exhibition, bringing the building back into the life of the town.
Water, Light & Further Reading
Water acts as a lens, changing the passage of light through movement, surface and depth. The image is made through a physical event, recorded on analogue film. The papers, books and conversations below explore this practice.
Water as a Lens: a paper exploring water as an optical instrument in the making of photographic images.
The Photograph As Event: photography and texts on the physical conditions through which an image is made.
Oil + Water / Enthalpy of Fusion: works exploring water, oil and changing physical states.
Visions from the Shoreline and other publications: books and writings from across the artist’s practice.
All Icons Are False: photography, iconography and our relationship with nature.
From Water to the Universe: Paul Carey-Kent’s essay for Seisma.
Fusion: a conversation with Emma Coccioli.
The Atlas
The artist’s Atlas offers a visual route through these projects and more, connecting places, works and the circumstances in which they were made. Explore the map through photographs, films and related texts.
Films & Studio Processes
Explore the films →
Moving image works and records from the studio, tracing the artist’s sustained enquiry into water, light and the physical conditions of image making.
The Legacy Collection
Explore the photographic archive →
Photographs from Alexander James Hamilton’s archive, available for rights managed licensing by enquiry only.
Supporting the Studio’s Projects
The studio’s work in recycling, restoration and education continues alongside its photographs and objects. You can follow these projects and support their development through Patreon.
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