Six Sites in Alexandria, David Hammons

Profile

David Hammons is developing a project in collaboration with Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF) entitled “Six Sites in Alexandria”. The project is conceived as a citywide series of public works that will be revealed on the day of the opening. Hammons has chosen six specific locations where he will create works of an ephemeral and temporary nature. The works will be mapped out by the artist in cards that will be available to the audience starting the 24th of November. David Hammons & Salah Hassan will be delivering a lecture/presentation about David Hammons’ practice on Monday 24 November; 6 pm. After the lecture a bus will be available to take the audience to some of the six sites where Hammons has created the works.

David Hammons is a painter, sculptor, conceptual and installation artist, who lives and works in New York. He creates witty installations and site-specific works in which he uses found objects as a platform for social and political commentary. Known for his minimal installations, (such as, Bliz-aard Ball Sale, 1983 on Cooper Square in New York), which through the power of irony and subtle humor, have triggered a lasting impact on the art world. As he is known to have said, “The less I do, the more artist I am." Hammons has risen to prominence while at the same time consciously avoiding the attention of critics, galleries, and museums, preferring to work in public places such as streets or vacant parking lots, and to focus attention on his art rather than his career. Since the early 1970s, he has been creating works with materials such as grease, hair, barbecued ribs, cheap wine bottles and dirt, among other objects. Hammons' work is in the collections of major museums in the United States, Europe and Asia. David Hammons is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award and the Prix de Rome.

Salah M. Hassan is Goldwin Smith Professor and Director of the Africana Studies and Research Center, and Professor of African and African Diaspora art history and visual culture in the Department of History of Art and Visual Studies at Cornell University. He is editor of Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, and consulting editor for African Arts and Atlantica. He authored, edited and co-edited several books including Diaspora, Memory, Place (2008); Unpacking Europe (2001); Authentic/Ex-Centric (2001); Gendered Vision (1997) and Art and Islamic Literacy among the Hausa of Northern Nigeria (1992). He contributed essays to journals, anthologies and exhibitions’ catalogues of contemporary art. He curated several international exhibitions such as Authentic/Ex-Centric (49th Venice Biennale, 2001), Unpacking Europe (Rotterdam, 2001-02), 3x3: Three Artists/Three Projects, David Hammons, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Pamela Z (Dak'Art, 2004).