I am always simultaneously thinking about my environment, the architecture around me,
text, paint and sculpture. Using mixed media to capture fleeting moments and feelings of
nostalgia; using language and art to create bold environments with text that connects with
people and images which captivate.
 

In my latest work I am exploring the relationship between art and language, art and life
through using my interests and memories. Using typography in forms of the English and
Korean language; text from the fleeting present, from poems and music lyrics, which I
arrange within a series of contexts- compositional arrangements and environments. I am
experimenting with ambiguity, mixing texts, creating a whole picture with both languages,
rather than two separate words or images within a frame. Unless you understand English
and Korean, the meanings can be lost but I enjoy the resulting curiosity and seeing the
artwork as an image, rather than text; the viewer can make their own connection. I want to
convey my love of the Korean language and culture without being offensive, I want to
continue to learn and understand. I feel this interest is an innate feeling, like it chose me.
 

The theme of opposites is connected to my choice of texts and how my work is viewed,
those that see the familiar or foreign, readable or distorted. Opposite meanings of text in
opposite mediums; wall murals being temporary, the fleeting moments captured in a
graffiti tag, in opposition with prints and sculpture which are repetitions and continuous,
trying to grasp at the memories and retrace my steps. This sentimental aspect is hidden
within the meanings of the text, then hidden in the distorted image, but clear in the effort
to carve each letter into a plaster cube and paint a huge amount of space.
 

There are a series of framing devices within my work. I create narratives made within and
working together with the environment, and the context of my other works. I work within a
research project of my life. Exploring Thomas Hirschhorn’s made environments which
surround you in chaos, and typographical artists such as Ben Johnston and Bisco Smith’s
graffiti-abstract expressionist work that also have musical connections. I want to create
dramatic focal points within made environments. To collate my research and memories to
create an atmosphere which frames the image. Emotions extracted from the environment
mixes with how spectators can look and see the image, or read it.

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Daisy-Mai Hammond, 2023