Sarah Mayhew Craddock looks at Kate Hammersley’s solo exhibition

In 1843 the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, prominent social thinker and philanthropist John Ruskin declared in Modern Painters periodical that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature." In 1856 he wrote in the same publication that “Mountains are the beginning and end of all natural scenery.”

These concepts, and a mutual love of the Alpine landscape, have intrigued and influenced the artistic practice of Oxford-based artist Kate Hammersley for several years; the fruits of which have gone on display at the gallery at Wolfson College, Linton Road, Oxford, until 6 May – her first solo exhibition in the city.

Hammersley grew up on a farm in Lichfield, Staffordshire surrounded by a post-industrial landscape that had been heavily mined and, during her formative years, appeared to be undergoing continuous change and regeneration. This consciousness of a landscape in flux permeates the artist’s studio practice resulting in beautifully executed, brutally thought provoking cross-disciplinary works of conceptual art.

Describing her interest in mountainous landscapes she explains,

“Mountains are the production of millions of years of evolution. Climate change means that quite quickly they’ll look very different. People have this idea of permanence regarding mountains that doesn’t ring true, so I’m interested in documenting them as they are now.”

In 2012 Hammersley’s practice pivoted around the Bodleian’s subterranean Mountaineering Library housed three floors below the city’s streets. Bringing mountains to street level the artist cycled a sculpture of a mountain around Oxford as part of a project aimed at gaining access to places not usually accessible to the public and raising awareness of the relationship between landscape and climate change.

Oxford is twinned with Grenoble, in the Rhône-Alpes region of south eastern France, and in 2014 Hammersley travelled to Oxford’s twin city as part of Oxford City Council’s Alps Inspires artist exchange programme. This experience inspired a new body of work that she is exhibiting at Wolfson College.

“The fact that there’s a mountaineering library in Oxford is really strange – Oxford is so flat, Grenoble is surrounded by mountains – there’s a view of a mountain literally at the end of every street, it was the perfect place for me to develop new work!”

Drawing from her experience in the French and Swiss Alps the artist has created over twenty black and white drawings created using soot-based ink that explore issues of landscape and permanence. She presents mountain scenery punctuated with contemporary intrusions such as streetlights and electricity pylons that date stamp these otherwise timeless yet quietly morphing landscapes. The detailed, monochromatic illustrations capture the mystery of the formidable Chartreuse Mountains that surround Grenoble, the Jungfrau and Alpe d'Huez. Hammersley comments,

“With these new drawings, I'm interested in the permanence of mountains, the way they always seem to be there in our subconscious. I am intrigued about how they came into being through a process of continual action over millions of years.”

These new works will go on display at Wolfson College alongside photographs from her worldwide series of text installations. To create the text installations Hammersley cuts letters out of local newspapers, creates words or phrases such as “aujourd’hui” (here today), that she then suspends on fine thread before photographing them in landscapes local to the newspaper with the effect of poignant expressions floating ethereally in their landscape.

Weather is critical to the success of documenting this happening – the photograph relies on capturing the moment the newspaper stops buffeting around in the wind. Through her drawings and photography, her choice of materials, and the intricate nature of her work that combines geology with an emotional response to her environment Hammersley captures a moment in time, in doing so creating a lasting document of landscapes as they are now - a comment on ‘state’, a lasting document of the transitory action.

Drawings and Photographs is at Wolfson College, Oxford, from 10am to 7pm until May 6.

Ring the college lodge 01865 274100 before visiting