Michelle Hamer (born 1975) is a contemporary visual artist based in

Melbourne, Australia Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metropol ...

. Her work comments on the digital and physical world we inhabit. Her work is based on her own photographs of language within the environment. The slogans at the heart of Hamer’s work question how the language of our everyday life reflects bigger questions and issues we face both personally and as a society as a whole. Hamer is primarily known for the way she uses hand-stitching, language and photography (her own and found) to bring attention to social issues in a clever and satirical way. Her

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...

on perforated

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

grids She ‘combines texts, yarn and the digital world’. Concerned with “how universal our belief systems… have become”, she sources language found within the urban environment.

Style

Informed by her background in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, the work focuses on signage within urban landscapes. In particular, addressing ideas of intertopia, margins of error,

interstitial An interstitial space or interstice is a space between structures or objects. In particular, interstitial may refer to: Biology * Interstitial cell tumor * Interstitial cell, any cell that lies between other cells * Interstitial collagenase, ...

and impermanent spaces represented through freeway signage and

billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

s. Through tapestry she explores everyday limitations - capturing small intense sped-up moments. Using this traditional technique, Hamer explores an ironic romanticism present between tapestry and the digitalisation of imagery in contemporary society. Hamer was awarded funding by the Australia Council in 2011 to undertake study in the USA.

Work

Stitched

Hamer's earliest works used wool and perforated plastic grids. The plastic grids are off the shelf products manufactured for the home craft, DIY market. Different colored wool is sourced, appropriate to each work. In 2014 Hamer was part of the Artists in Residence program at the Australian Tapestry Workshop where she was able to make yarns uniquely for her stitched works. Hamer has also worked in larger stitched formats; using barrier tape to stitch through polypropylene debris mesh.

Ink on paper

Hamer has continued to develop her technique(s) using perforated plastic grids. In the medium of ink on paper, Hamer uses the plastic grid as a stencil template through which to make marks on the paper. The process of slowly rendering an image is common to both the stitched and ink works.

Installation

There are no words was first seen at the NGV, as part of Melbourne Now in early 2014. Alongside the exhibition, Hamer ran two programs which allowed the public to stitch with her, contributing to the making of a large series of pieces. There are no words includes over 200 stitched black and white pieces. Individual pieces have black text stitched on a background of white stitches. The first installation of There are no words was at Ararat Regional Art Gallery in 2015, where a site specific workshop was run prior to the installation. The unique footage from the workshop became one half of the installation.

Awards

* 2015: Joint award winner of the Inaugural Tapestry Design Prize for Architects with

Kristin Green Kristin Green is the director of the Australian architecture practice Kristin Green Associates architecture (KGA architecture) based in Melbourne, Australia. Early life and education Green was born in Melbourne, and studied architecture at RMIT ...

for their work ''Long Term Parking'', along with

John Wardle Architects John Wardle is a Melbourne-based architect. He graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology with a degree in Architecture. Biography John Wardle established his architectural practice, John Wardle Architects (JWA), in Melbourne in ...

for ''Perspectives on a Flat Surface''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamer, Michelle Living people Artists from Melbourne Australian textile artists 21st-century Australian women artists 1975 births 21st-century women textile artists 21st-century textile artists 21st-century Australian artists