Alaric Hammond Exhibition at Saatchi Gallery - Caustic Windows Curated by Olly Walker
Alaric Hammond, the British contemporary artist, has created new works for the Caustic Windows exhibition opening at Saatchi Gallery; Prints & Originals Gallery. Flirting with the concepts of creation and destruction, through his sculptural works, Hammond erases the distinct division between the two juxtaposed notions. As the artist himself states, there is beauty in decay, and his work displays a genuine entropy which resonates with an alluring atmosphere. The colors used for this creative process include only natural pigments, but developed through a chemical reaction, once again, mixing together two seemingly contrasted ideas.
Alaric Hammond’s Caustic Windows Show Glimpse of Beauty in Decay
Alaric Hammond Explores Desire and Consumption
As many other artists of the contemporary world, Alaric Hammond is also inspired by the influence the consumerism imposes on our society. Objects of everyday use which we are inclined to buy by default, like cigarettes, shoes, prescription drugs, technology or make-up, all find their role in Hammond’s artworks. They are presented as motifs of the mundane and the quotidian, alongside of text messages, spam, email offers, discarded product packaging, snapshots and other consumer products. He portrays our society’s infatuation with expenditure and the relationship between desire and consumption, still managing to discover beauty in destruction.
Mundane as the Inspiration
Finding Beauty in Everyday Surroundings
Having spent a lot of his time living and moving from one place to another, often existing in the margins of the communities, the artist has developed a deep sense of displacement which he masterfully displays in his works. Hammond has developed the ability to find beauty in the parts of the city that have not been regenerated and “homogenized”. He argues that beauty is omnipresent, just waiting for us to take the time to look for it. By subjecting ourselves to the unrelenting cycle of aspiration and consumption, we blind ourselves to the beauty that surrounds us every day.
Opening Your Eyes to the Omnipresent Beauty
Caustic Windows New Works by Alaric Hammond at Saatchi Gallery
The beauty in decay is showcased through the processes of etching and corrosion in Hammond’s works. Caustic Windows new works by Alaric Hammond are on view from 25th of August – 1st of November, 2015, at the Saatchi Gallery in the Prints & Originals Gallery, London, curated by Olly Walker. Sculptures come in various shapes and forms, and in this exhibition every piece displayed is a sculptural assemblage, produced with a variety of finishes and textures. Through processes of corrosion and etching, zinc plates were mounted onto wood, resulting in a very unique set of artworks. Take the time from your everyday routine to stop and look for the beauty in our surroundings.
All images courtesy of Olly Studio
