Harmony Hammond

Harmony Hammonds lecture gave me more insight of the conceptual meaning in a piece. I liked how she described her works which also described herself. I’m grateful I got an in depth meaning of Hammond’s feminist artworks. I glad she went into a discussion about the male interpretation of what’s considered “an art piece”.

Harmony Hammond. Floorpiece VI, 1973

I’m also glad she had this slide FloorpieceVI (?). In her discussion, she describes this earlier work as a radical representation of a painting. I recall she used fabric and twisted it like a braid. She then covered it in variety of acrylic colors. The pieces are layered thick with acrylic paint, but still have the texture of the fabric. I remember she wanted to use media that didn’t come from male artist like oil paints. She wanted to give viewers a thought that “crafts” (a   misogynist term) are comparable to artworks such as paintings. . She purposely placed the art piece in the floor void of other paintings in the gallery walls to show to the viewers that this painting should be considered art and not a rug. The fabric which would be considered a craft just like weaving baskets were considered only a female task or hobby by single minded men.

I liked how she described the early event when pottery was born. Hammond described a scene when a woman put clay or mud(?) inside her basket to hold water, later when the basket was not of any use anymore she and other women burned it and found that the soft clay had turned to this hard surface and pottery was born. It’s a very inspirational story for female artists. There is no denying that her lecture also made me resentful (not the first time) of men and the interpretation of art.

Harmony Hammond. Suture, 2002 acrylic, latex 

Harmony Hammond. Passage, 2006 acrylic

            

Harmony Hammond, Muffle acrylic

Three of her later works Suture, Passage, and Muffled have similar appearances of Mark Rothko pieces, but very different interpretation and media. While Rothko used oil in canvas and expressed his feelings in his chromatic compositions, Hammond uses again acrylic and latex, fabric, and various items holding the skin in place. If I had lots of money, I would buy Suture. I like the thick grainy texture of one side and the other side a yellow hue that is lightly painted latex(?) with a smooth surface.  I liked her interpretation of the piece as this us versus them concept or in this case homosexuality versus the heterosexuals who don’t like them. She puts this zipper like column in the middle so they can be connected. I think as a whole composition it really does connect these two sides. The other piece  Passage  has the same qualities of a thick acrylic texture, but like a large triptych (but without the panels) composition. She adds a deep blue as the primary layer in the whole composition and contrast it with a brick red hue in the left and right.  The last piece Muffled  is made of layers of paint with black as its final layer. The lines of the fabric and nails(?) can be easily seen through the compositions giving it geometric formation.  I like how it has this fabric like quality, but can also be seen like a dark door with rivets and metal. For me, it has this interpretation of trapped or smothered because of the cloth. It is a very dark piece.

 I learned a lot from this guest speaker. She was very funny especially about moving away from New York and being stupid for making large compositions and her complaints of the price of paint or shipping. She was very fascinating.