INTERFACE
Visual art exhibitions and events with a platform for critical writing
REVIEW
Charlie Hammond - Solo Show
Sorcha Dallas Gallery
2 February 2007 to 3 March 2007
Reviewed by: Morag Keil
Charlie Hammond's solo show at Sorcha Dallas plays with the aesthetics of high art, mocking it with a childlike playfulness and a knowing morbidity.
Hammond is a Glasgow School of Art graduate, who is exhibiting at The Armory Show, New York this year. His work shows a diversity of interests and influences as well as a talent in manipulating his materials, sometimes referring to and using techniques taught to children. For example "filmmaker (macaroni style)" which is oil on canvas but painted in a freehand curly style mimicking the shapes of pasta and "Sculpture with their head kick in (blue)" a ceramic head sculpted using children's foot prints. The end result, whilst harking back to the familiarity of childhood experiences, has a harshness that only comes with the knowledge of age. The references run thick through the work and the crossing of child like innocence and the corruption of knowledge adds a biblical edge to the work as well as discussing the acceptance of responsibility for actions: "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child, when I became a man, I put away childish things." Paul Corinthians 13, 11
Hammond's work is aesthetically intriguing and encapsulating. There is a great deal of sinister humour in his work creating a paradox of sophistication and naivety. Both these elements are strengthened by his knowledge of the tools he uses.
Morag Keil 2007
Venue detail:
Sorcha Dallas Gallery
5-9 St Margaret's Place, Glasgow G1 5JY
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