Hanna-Maria Hammari

Hanna-Maria Hammari’s sculptures are fantastical objects that playfully circle around our immediate reality.

Her work is created by conceptually engaging with her materials and their creation processes; she makes self-referential allusions that continually refer to each other. The ceramic flames in the installation at Frankfurter Kunstverein come from a process in which clay is first glazed and then fired in a furnace. The objects themselves visually depict the firing process to which they were subjected. The sculpture tells about its own origin, and transports this reference via the form into the exhibition space.

Hanna-Maria Hammari fastens the ceramics to metal chains of different thicknesses. These hang from the ceiling in arrangements and they are no longer shiny but have an oxidized quality. Consolidated into several vertical groupings in the space, the ceramics and chains stand rigidly, thus creating an image of a disembodied combustion process.

Despite the potential narrative branches opened up by Hanna-Maria Hammari’s works, she emphasizes the physical and material essence of her sculptures. The formation of her works is constantly accompanied by the specific conditions that frame her practice. The artisanal methods she uses, the material resources that are only available in certain dimensions, and the context of the exhibition site are each time translated into Hanna-Maria Hammari’s sculptures. This material reality in which her objects are formed is a solid foundation from which conceptual and narrative strands can unfold.

(Text: Franziska Nori, Dennis Brzek)