Since the 1960s, David Hammons has confronted American cultural stereotypes and racial issues through wittily incisive sculptures, installations, performances, and body prints. Placing himself somewhere between Arte Povera and Dada, Hammons has made art from the refuse and cast-offs of stereotypical African-American life: chicken wings, Thunderbird and Night Train bottles, dreadlock clippings, basketball hoops, elephant dung, and bottle caps. From his X-ray-like body prints made with grease, to his "Spade" series of garden spades (a reclamation of the racial slur), to Pissed Off (1981), in which he urinated against a Richard Serra sculpture, Hammons combines political sentiment with powerful aesthetic statements.
Since the 1960s, David Hammons has confronted American cultural stereotypes and racial issues through wittily incisive sculptures, installations, performances, and body prints. Placing himself somewhere between Arte Povera and Dada, Hammons has made art from the refuse and cast-offs of stereotypical African-American life: chicken wings, Thunderbird and Night Train bottles, dreadlock clippings, basketball hoops, elephant dung, and bottle caps. From his X-ray-like body prints made with grease, to his "Spade" series of garden spades (a reclamation of the racial slur), to Pissed Off (1981), in which he urinated against a Richard Serra sculpture, Hammons combines political sentiment with powerful aesthetic statements.
