Bio

Hans Edward Hammonds is a Norwegian and New Zealand artist, with a Master of Fine Arts from the Elam School of Fine Arts (University of Auckland) in New Zealand. In recent years, Hammonds has a multi disciplinary practice but works mainly sculpture, installation and participatory/relational projects. His work is playfull and he explores ways of collaborating, interaction, and interplay. Hammonds believe these are relevant and important themes to work with in the current social and political climate we live in today.

As well as his own solo practice Hammonds has a history of collaborating with other artists. Two noteworthy projects are Paradise Rangers and Velferden where he works closely with artists and college Maiken Stene.

Paradise Rangers are two symbolic characters who work from a deep ecological perspective, believing that nature has intrinsic value independent of its utility for human purposes. They combine performance, fieldwork, and exploration of regulations surrounding nature conservation in urban environments, aiming to develop new methods for society to protect nature from being undermined by commercial and institutional interests.

In 2020, they were invited to participate in an urban development project led by Stavanger Municipality and Smartby Stavanger. The project, named Sjøkanten, aimed to increase understanding of the use of art as knowledge and method within urban development and planning.

The project resulted in a video archive with interviews, a performance, and several walks and talks along the waterfront during the project period from 2020-22. With the project “Hunting for the Wilderness,” they traveled across Norway exploring nature conservation. 100 years ago, 80% of Norway was covered by wilderness. Today, less than 11% remains. “Hunting for the Wilderness” resulted in a series of photographs and a podcast documenting the journey.

Paradise Rangers is a project of Velferden UTE and is contextually based in the program of Velferden Sokndal’s Scene for Contemporary Art.

Velferden is an artist-run venue for social and artistic exploration of the human relationship with nature, based in Norway’s largest mining municipality, Sokndal.

Our facilities are located in the old mining site of Titania in Sandbekk, Sokndal, in the historic buildings where Titania invented how to transform black iron ore into the white pigment titanium dioxide, used in paint, cosmetics, medicine, food, and more.

Velferden has offices, welfare buildings, workshops, and artist residences surrounded by a fascinating landscape shaped by over 100 years of mining.

The theme for our program from 2023-2026 is WASTE / DEPOSIT. Through this theme, we take a critical and solution-oriented look at current issues related to the disposal and management of mining waste as artistic material and a societal resource.

The program is interdisciplinary, cross-artistic, and multidisciplinary, aimed at developing new artistic productions, providing space for in-depth landscape studies, new research, relational expressions, and new ideas. The program is curated by us, Hans Edward Hammonds and Maiken Stene, who run Velferden.

In the mining the worthless waste left after the economically valuable minerals have been extracted gets deposited in dumps thats become monumental in size and changes landscapes. This waste can be studied both concretely and symbolically, in various forms of matter and as a symbol of the Anthropocene. We have a waste problem because we have stopped seeing waste as a resource. Deposit and waste, in general, have become synonymous with something we need to get rid of and don’t want to associate with. However, the situation is changing rapidly, and we see that the waste we produce is becoming an increasingly significant part of the economy.

Through the program, Velferden takes a closer look at the unforeseen possibilities buried in these new and strange landscapes. The deposits represent interesting places from a biological perspective but also because they are constructed, human-made, and artificial interventions in our surroundings – creating immediate connections to science fiction, imagination, and the creative artistic space.

Upcoming in his practice Hammonds will be completing two public artworks 2024. One at a primary school in and one work spanning three kindergarten in Stavanger. Along side his college Stene, he will also be organizing a project know as the Sand School, where along side 4 other artists they will be creating new works of art by exploring the material quality of the tailings from the titanium oxide mine Titania. In 2026 he will be presenting new works of art part of the NONA program at Stavanger Kunstmuseum as well as completing the multi year project Waste/Deposit at Velferden.

Contact:
+47 47178299
hans.edward.hammonds@gmail.com