Bill Hammond

Bill Hammond, who also goes by WD Hammond, is an advocate for the endangered birds of New Zealand and integrates them into his figurative works. He began his career as a toymaker then shifted into painting in the early 1980s. His early works were dense and violent, reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch and influenced by rock music. Song lyrics were often injected into the structures and skewed perspective of these works. After a trip to Japan in 1989 and then to the Auckland Islands in 1991, Hammond shifted his focus to birds. Liberally painted canvases illustrate human bodies with avian heads, inspired by the untouched sanctuary of the Islands and speaking to the individuality of prehistoric New Zealand. Hammond’s detailed works address a novel New Zealand mythology based upon preservation and acknowledgement of the nation’s eccentricities. Hammond’s paintings are held in many important New Zealand public collections and he has been the subject of a major Christchurch Art Gallery survey exhibition Jingle Jangle Morning, which toured New Zealand in 2007.