Beautiful Work, Detail.
Beautiful Work : Hammers, nails, Wandoo timber
I have spent many an hour on the hammer. The other job that pays for the habit that is visual art. I confess to enjoying the transformation of these hammers, a symbol of the pragmatic. Balancing them out with a little bit of beauty.
Love your Work : Hammers, nails, Wandoo and Marri timber
Love your work : Hammer and nails, stainless steel rod and wandoo timber
The perfectly useless tool. part hammer part banksia flower.
Hindsight Hammer : various timbers, hammer
Over the years i have allowed myself to write the occasional song with humour and this exhibition, Hammered! was a time for me to let myself make some sculptures with very Australian humour. This particular one is one of a group of hammers folding back on themselves, looking backwards. Completely ineffective in the now because their focus is on yesterday.
Great Grandfather Jack : books, wooden handle, nails and jarrah timber
This artwork was made at the same time as my song of the same name was written. It tells the story, owns the history, of my great grandfather and his part in the massacre of Indigenous Australians from a location near Kununarra in the 1880’s. He held the horses as part of a group that shot down five . The song and artwork are a reflection of our family coming to terms with this recently re-discovered knowledge.
I have recently recorded a version of song of the same name, as this sculpture, with Kevin Jones and Dave Mann in Dave’s Margaret River studio. You can listen to it below.
The Wordsmith : Books, wooden handle, archival pen and acrylic
This hammer was made around the time that my song titled “University” was written. A friend, who studied film and television, and i were digging holes and wielding the hammer. We had a laugh or you might cry moment about the jobs that we, as artists endure. A slightly cynical perspective on studying at university to end up as a labourer, or a barista or working at a servo.
You can hear the song that accompanies this artwork below. This version was recorded with the help of Dave Mann. Performed by myself and my good friend Kevin Jones.
The Lyrical Mallet : Books, mallet handle, nails , screws
Living Hammer : Carved hammer, acrylic, jarrah, blackbutt, wandoo timber
The hammer as a tool, a symbol, is full of latent, potential energy. I’ve carved the handle of this hammer to evoke this energy.
The Persuader : Acrylic on a timber drawer side.
This painting from a few years ago was the beginning of this project. I picked up a timber cupboard drawer off the curb from a Perth roadside throw out. A little bit of reverse Ikea with the persuader and the drawer was a couple of pieces of timber. I then painted the Persuader onto the panel.
Nailed It : Steel flower spike, old hammer
Like a butterfly specimen pinned to a board this relic hammer has been nailed. Beauty has tipped the scales just a little bit in its favour.
“What do you do? , Hammerhead” welded steel and hammers. Work in progress.
Hammered! : A collection of hammers and remnants of timber with various histories.
Top left clockwise, The nail gun: Not a hammer :A hindsight hammer: The diplomat and the overqualified
Wooden Skin : River Banksia, pine , acrylic
The hammers have lead my onto the obvious. House images. In this case relief wall works that play with perspective and surface.
Framework : Reclaimed pine
Here the relief nature is a little easier to see. At its deepest the house is 100mm deep and on the edge it reduces down to about 20mm.
New House, Old Site : Reclaimed pine
There was a penny in the wall frames and a hammer in the ceiling. We packed up all the stories until only the brick chimney stood, waiting.
One of the jobs i have done in the last five years was to help pull down an old house in town in preparation for a new one to be built. At the end of the job i had a container full of “useless” objects. Small memories of the life in the house that was. A broken shard of pottery, a world war 2 figurine, a bullet casing, a padlock opened by a boltcutter and a few small pieces of flooring salvaged from the beaches of windy harbour after the shipwreck in the 40’s.
PETER HILL 