Artistic Family Tree - David Hammons

Over the next few weeks i'll be posting a list of inspirational artists, in response to a current project for Art and Ecology.  We have been asked to devise a family tree, delegating artist in sequential order of influence.  There are so many artists to think about and consider. In my own practice if feel the the intent of my art is always changing, however somethings remain significant even if not originally recognized as such.  Things like identity have strongly influenced my work, maybe more so in the last few years as I am finally beginning to believe in who I am and my place in this crazy world.

David Hammons (born 1943) is a sculptor, installation and performance African American artist from Springfield IL in the 1960's.

 Bliz-aard Ball Sale (1983), a performance piece in which Hammons situates himself alongside street vendors in downtown Manhattan in order to sell snowballs which are priced according to size. This act serves both as a parody on commodity exchange and a commentary on the capitalistic nature of art fostered by art galleries. Furthermore, it puts a satirical premium on ‘whiteness’, ridiculing the superficial luxury of racial classification as well as critiquing the hard social realities of street vending experienced by those who have been discriminated against in terms of race or class.

 Hammons was one of many pioneering African- American artists commited to civil rights and the Black Power movement.  For the past 40 years Hammonds has explored race, creativity and politics without gallery representation. In recent years Hammons’ art has evolved into increasingly incorporeal undertakings, but in many ways the artist himself has continued to figure – to be a figure – in his work. As his fame has grown, he has earned a reputation for his evasive manoeuvres, for defying art world protocols. Yet the more Hammons side-steps the public sphere, the more present he seems, the more his own identity comes to be at issue. When a New York Times reviewer makes a point of referring to ‘the artist himself, whom I’ve never met, and chances are, never will’, it’s clear we are in the realm of something like personal mystique. But for Hammons persona is more than epiphenomenal: his work seems to a large extent to be about how he functions in the world. And it includes the conversation around it, the dialogue – public and private – that surrounds the artist’s activities.