Sleek and enigmatic, wearing lustrous fabrics rather than feathers, they suggest New Zealand's early history as a land occupied almost solely by birds, before the arrival of humans. In a green, almost primordial, world of dripping forests and smouldering volcanoes, bird-like creatures stand as sentinels, looking out to sea. In 1989 he joined a number of other New Zealand artists on an expedition to Antarctica and the Auckland Islands.’Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning’ (2007) is the most recent survey of Hammond’s work to date, organised by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Hammond was born in Christchurch and studied at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts between 19. The same compositional format – elevated viewpoint, figures in the foreground and the tiny body of the fallen Icarus disappearing into the sea – are seen in the original painting. The Fall of Icarus takes a work by Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1558) as a pivotal reference. Hammond’s birds look on dispassionately, their own wings emphasising the absurdity of Icarus’s fatal desire. Bill Hammond uses this legend to suggest the threat posed to the natural environment by humans. In Greek mythology, Icarus flew too close to the sun, melting the wax that bound his wings and causing him to plunge into the sea. Some hold on to branches, needing that reassuring grasp lest they fall off their perch, while others are ghostlike, stretched out in crucifix poses, as if they, too, are about to fall into the abyss of extinction. Bill had nineteenth-century bird stuffers like Walter Buller in mind when he painted these birds. Here, they occupy a primordial time before human habitation. These birds have been a motif for Bill since the early 1990s, representing the colonised and colonisers of Aotearoa New Zealand. Bill Hammond: Playing the Drums, 3 August 2019 – 19 January 2020īill’s take on Bruegel’s sixteenth-century masterpiece Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is populated with serious, enigmatic bird creatures watching from their treetop perches as one of their own takes wing and fails to fly, crashing centre stage.I create comics for curious readers of all ages so they can learn more about the fascinating world around them. The Greeks new this, which is we they had their gods. It’s a lesson that plenty of self-centered people need to learn – we probably wouldn’t think overly highly of ourselves if we realize how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. The farmer never looks up, the ship probably never stops, and life goes on even though Icarus’s doesn’t. Icarus is too self-centered for his own good, and probably believed that the sun revolved around him (in pre-Galilean days, not as far fetched as you might think.) But in reality, our lives matter very little to most people. Game over.īut this painting teaches us a great lesson for when we get a little too big for a britches and think that we are more important than we actually are. He was too cocky, so he flew too close to the sun, his wings melted, and he fell into the water and drowned. So what’s going on here? Icarus’s fatal flaw is said to be hubris, or excessive pride or self confidence. The most prominent figure in the painting is the farmer plowing, followed by the ship. In fact, you have to look around a little bit to find him. The title is The Fall of Icarus, which would make you think that Icarus would be the most prominent image in the composition. It’s a great supplement to the Icarus myth, and a great lesson in composition.
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