The Hammer Series are specimens from the toolkit of an apprentice. They can be read as material evolutions that run parallel to the knowledge gained through, making, practice, mistakes, paying attention, and patience. This work taps into the human connection to tools by focusing on one of the most familiar, the hammer. These tool-things have been meticulously made from cast, polished bronze and carved Canadian hard maple. The forms have been paused during a process of metamorphosis, somewhere between the familiar and alien, encouraging us to question what comes first: the knowledge, or the tool? Potentially sparking frustration in their apparent uselessness, the Hammer Series, asks us to look a little longer–it could just be that we don't yet recognize their use.
Michael M Simon is a practicing artist and member of the artist collective Studio F Minus. He holds an MFA from OCAD University, a bachelors degree in Architecture from Carleton University and previously practiced for over a decade in design, lighting and fabrication - all of which he draws upon to inform his interdisciplinary practice. His work re-contextualizes common objects, tools and materials in site specific installations and explores the complex relationships of people and objects in our built environment.