Stephanie Hamer // Father Knows Best

About

The title of the exhibition, Father Knows Best, insinuates a hierarchy or relationship involving both subservience and respect. The premise of this highly personal project is the pursuit of finding one’s biological family members, with the father as a central figure—even though this figure seems absent.

The works revolve around the notion of familial relationships and dynamics. In the paintings, we see female figures bearing a weight: powerful figures forever connected by an ‘umbilical cord’; day-to-day relationships being lived out—darker undertones and surrealist tropes at the forefront. While other figures may seem distant — sometimes ageless or seemingly removed from feeling — and concerned only with their immediate surroundings, such as the meal in front of them or their time spent, what we are really seeing is the void of that centrifugal character.

Key to this series is the investigation of processes—both artistic and emotional. The combination of the two is explored by observing the realms between fabrication and reality: What memories do we, as humans, fictitiously create versus those that have stayed with us since childhood? What is it like to search for immediate family in a country far from your birthplace? How do people fare in reality compared to the idea you conjure up of them?

The paintings in Father Knows Best are rooted in fragmented narratives from childhood and new memories conjured from the pursuit that forms the foundation of this project. Exploring familial ties as a recurring theme, the works come together to represent the different strands of meaning that unravel for the artist regarding this subject, entwining common settings with distorted figures to create otherworldly and often macabre images.