Wave

Wave

It's one of the first gestures that we learn as a child, but the wave is loaded with many different meanings, as captured in a new exhibition by artist Sigune.

From the heart-wrenching waves of Jewish families leaving Germany by train to find safety in Britain prior to the Second World War, to the formal waves of royalty, to the tentative gesture made by a child, to enthusiastic greetings, Hamann's thought-provoking exhibition evokes compelling stories of journeys and migration, past and future.

Wave, which runs from 13 December - 3 March and was commissioned by the London-based Wellcome Collection, includes 50 still images and moving footage compiled over four years of work. Displayed fittingly close to the MOSI entrance the wavers form a complex interaction of gestures of greeting and parting as people pass by on their way in to the Museum.

Hamann's interest in the enigmatic gesture of the wave began with a collection of 1950s photographs of Berliners waving to relatives across the newly-erected Berlin wall, a practice soon declared illegal by the East German authorities. Fascinated by the range of meanings and emotions a wave can suggest or provoke Hamann began to make her own photographic portraits of people waving, and gathered still and moving images from a variety of other sources.