Tom Hammick Article in Elephant magazine
"By infusing his work with the spirituality of East Asian art forms, Tom Hammick delivers his own exuberant take on traditional depictions of the English landscape. His new woodcuts commemorate the raw authenticity of the unblemished countryside, and employs recurring motifs of simple architectural structures contrasted against the natural environment.
The flatness of the composition is ideal for creating a panoramic narrative across the surface of Hammick's woodcuts, thus enabling him to achieve a minimalist style that subtly conveys the intimate relationship between human existence and nature. As identical figures are repeatedly featured through some of his compositions, a conventional understanding of time is also thwarted and the viewer experiences these works as a cyclical journey.
Drawing inspiration from accounts by Po Chi-I, Kamo No Chomei and Matsuo Basho that describe the joy experienced through living ascetically in the wilderness, Hammick transforms the rustic rolling hills of East Sussex into colourful dreamlike realms. In line with Eastern philosophy, Hammick's woodcuts embody the recognition of our own mortality as well as the fleeting beauty of natural phenomena."
Hammick's woodcuts will show at Flowers Gallery in London from 21 March to 20 April.