Joanna Ham

posted by Mel Luff November 11, 2014

London based artist, Joanna Ham is more renowned in the art world as the creative mind behind home wares label HAM. Launched in 2011 her brand is bold and blocky, black and white, playfully incorporating the anthropomorphic characters of a pig and a rabbit in a fascination with the banal and the nostalgia of growing up.

However her latest work, launched at the IMPRINT exhibition at Craft Central in September of last year, is a limited collection of screen prints simply titled Woman Fig.1, 8., 11.,12. and 13. Her Woman series features ambiguous and abstract female figures, exploring the individuality of women in the modern age. Informed by Joanna’s background in the advertising trade, this series also focuses on the effects of popular consumer culture on our day-to-day lives.

The process behind her work is complex and unique, each print starting life as an intricate mixed media collage, multi layered with cuttings from advertisements, magazines, and drawings. The collage is then transformed into a photogram, using the darkroom method of overlaying and directly exposing it to light sensitive paper. The print is then deconstructed and electronically rebuilt, with the finer details, facial expressions and accessories intricately added by hand with a digital paintbrush. On completion the final image is transferred to silkscreen, hand printed and pulled – printed on heavyweight paper and comprised of half tone dots just like the article cuttings they are originally made of.