Jesse Hamerman. A Chronological Sequence of Swell Artifacts

About

Time, process and gravity are the true authors. Through an iterative process the forms in the exhibition lose their planar detail to become drawings on the surface of ambiguous objects.

For this exhibition Hamerman developed a technique of mold making without a rigid shell, allowing the weight of the material (wet plaster) and the geometry of the skin of the mold to determine the form of each object. Starting with a small, intricate, and singular cactus, the series grows in scale with each respective generation while details of the original object fade away.

These works are artifacts of time, a history of action taken. Broken chips are recorded as if in petrified lava, an archaeological history is revealed that fades slowly with time. Framing its evolution into formlessness, each object acts as a memory of the action that preceded it.

Alongside this amorphous procession a blank frame bulges out of the gallery wall. An architectural intervention, this empty image compresses the space altering the geometry of the gallery itself.

Jesse Hamerman's work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery, Halsey McKay Gallery, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, The Musee d'Orsay, and The Athens Institute of Contemporary Art.