Valerie Hammond’s ‘Waking Dreams’ Explores Surreal Visions of Nature at the Cusp of Sleep

Carved in low relief on vertical panels of wood, winged creatures, flowers, and mammals populate the surfaces of Valerie Hammond’s dream-like compositions. The artist plumbs the liminal state between sleeping and waking, where reality and fantasy blend and are sometimes indiscernible.

Hammond recently exhibited a new body of work at Planthouse in an exhibition titled Waking Dreams, which is also the name of her series of wood engravings depicting flora and woodland creatures in an elegant, suspended state. Focusing on animals like bats, moths, hares, and owls, the artist brings nocturnal creatures to the fore—those that become active at dusk—in an elegant exploration of the relationships between day and night and reality and imagination.

Waking dreams, in particular, fuel Hammond’s recent pieces. A phenomenon in which one is not quite fully asleep but not entirely awake either—sometimes referred to as a hypnagogic state—in which vivid, dream-like experiences blur the distinction between the real and the imagined. Through her drawings and carvings, “Hammond captures the fleeting visual language of the subconscious, balancing control and surrender as conscious details interact with the spontaneous flow of ink,” says a statement.

Explore more of Hammond’s work and follow updates on the artist’s Instagram. You might also enjoy similar themes of nature and consciousness in the work of Kiki Smith.

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