Jingle jangle morning
Jingle jangle morning
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Bill Hammond

1947 - Jingle jangle morning 2006
  • acrylic on linen
Description

Taken from a verse in Bob Dylan's song Mr Tambourine Man, Jingle Jangle Morning is the title of an opulent Bill Hammond painting depicting majestic avian musicians and serpentine creatures who sing, dance and play instruments upon a floating world of golden clouds and mountainous divides.

Bill Hammond is one of New Zealand's most influential contemporary artists. He was born in Christchurch in 1947 and attended the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts. During the 1970s, he worked in a sign factory, made jewellery and designed and manufactured wooden toys before returning fulltime to painting in 1981.

Birds first began to populate Hammond's paintings after he visited the Auckland Islands in 1989, as part of the Art in the Subantarctic project. The three-week trip to the remote, windswept islands, where the severity of the climate has allowed little human impact on the natural environment was something of a revelation. In an interview with Gregory O'Brien for Lands and Deeds (Godwit, Auckland, 1996), Hammond spoke of the islands as a kind of lost world, ruled over by beak and claw: 'The Auckland Islands are like New Zealand before people got here. It's bird land.'

Bill Hammond's compositions encompass humour, beauty, and lyricism while reflecting a unique expression of New Zealand's cultural landscape.

Source: Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Whaiwhetu, Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning, 20 July - 22 October 2007, Christchurch, New Zealand

© Bill Hammond

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The Wesfarmers Collection of Australian Art acknowledges all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Traditional Custodians of Country and recognises their continuing connection to land, sea, culture and community. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

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