Valerie Hammond - I stole them from a Bee
September 5 - October 14, 2017
Opening Reception Thursday, September 14, 6-8pm
Littlejohn Contemporary is pleased to present an exhibition of recent drawings and sculpture by New York artist Valerie Hammond. The show takes its title from the first line of an Emily Dickinson poem:
I stole them from a Bee—
Because—Thee—
Sweet plea—
He pardoned me!
Though what exactly was stolen from the bee is uncertain, one might surmise it was a bouquet of sweet-smelling flowers; the bee, momentarily ungrounded, must renew its search for another bloom. The sensations provided by this brief reverie – the thief’s hesitation, the bee’s startled buzz, the still warmth of perfumed air – are those of the same wonderment and contemplative introspection that permeate Hammond’s work. Interestingly, she almost chose for her title “A dim capacity for wings,” a line from another Dickinson poem in which the narrator, a new butterfly, emerges from her chrysalis. In the first poem, one is witness to a bee’s staggered flight; in the other, the notion of flight is experienced in the first person. This shift in perspective is at the crux of Hammond’s work; transformation occurs in the slowed perception of a passing moment, when the reverberation of nature echoes in the soul.