Mr & Mrs,  1997

Iris print

45'' x 30"

Originally conceived as a series of surrogate self-portraits representing the various emotional and psychological states of my own perceived ‘multi-phrenia’, these heads quickly evolved lives and personalities of their own, seemingly beyond my control.

Out of a group of over 80 paper-maché heads, various dominant characters emerged acting as personalized symbols of consumption, greed, stupidity, depression, vulgarity, fear and arrogance. All pre-linked with the stock characters of European folklore, street-theatre puppets and notably the Commedia del Arte. They were produced as prints in collaboration with John Cone at the Cone-Lamont Studios (pioneers in digital IRIS printing and experimental ink sets) in their New York workshops during 1996 and 1997.

“Hampson’s vision has a dark perverse sensibility with humorous edge that allows the viewer entry. He obsessively layers his images of puppet-like heads by photographing, painting over and photographing again and again, working between the layers of mediation and the generations in time and digital space. After many such manipulations, the fantastical facial quality subsumes the manipulation and relates a kind of movement, a vibration between layers of process. The head is animated in a kind of stop action, jerking back and forth through various events of making” – Bill Jones “The Paintedphotograph”, USA, 1997.