‘Symmetry of Nature’

Exhibition at the Kube Gallery / June 2020

Sarah Hammond presents ‘Symmetry of Nature’, her solo art show at the Kube in Gibson, featuring her 'Cabinet of Curiosity' series. The pieces displayed focus on the entomology native to the Pacific Northwest, featuring large scale drawings of a dragonfly, a bumblebee, a ladybug, a silk moth, a butterfly and a grasshopper.

Sarah is a visual artist known for her fine line and highly detailed pencil drawings on paper. The level of detail she achieves is akin to a scientific rendering, but her approach is more fine art. Each cabinet of curiosity insect art work can take up to 16 hours to complete. The coloured pieces in the collection are created using the same techniques before having a little photoshop magic infused into them. They are then reproduced as high quality Giclee prints and various smaller digital prints. 

Inspiration for ‘Symmetry of Nature’ presented itself when Sarah, out walking on the beach one day, found a dead dragonfly and decided to take the insect home to study it more closely. First, she photographed it, before painstakingly drawing the dragonfly on a blown up scale to really capture its exquisite detail. To recreate the fragility of the wings she concentrated intently on one side before mirroring the other with a directed emphasis on its natural symmetry. Symmetry in nature, and by extension human perception, has come to be known as a reliable metric of quality and beauty.

By representing such small creatures as larger iterations, Sarah is drawing attention not only to their beauty but also to their integral contribution to the ecosystem. Many animals rely on pollinators to create and maintain such habitats, but by virtue of their size, these insects can often be overlooked. Through their amplification Sarah aims to make such insects more visible; a metaphor that highlights the plight of these delicate microcosms, and one that throws our own vital but often neglected relationship with them into stark relief, too.

Sarah has always been a passionate studier of the natural world, an interest that has forayed into taxidermy. Unwaveringly drawn to National History museums, with London’s being her favourite, Sarah deeply aligns with their message of education, conservation and of invoking reverence for the natural world. After all, imitation by its very nature is an act of creation, and through her art Sarah seeks to honour all creatures, not only great and small, but also small and great.

5% of all sales will go to CPAWS, a charity that protects the parks and wilderness of Canada. Sarah is most inspired and impassioned by the beauty of the natural world and as such by the pledge of its conservation.