H O U R February 18-24, 1993 Montreal
OWEN EGAN
Some people keep their fantasies to themselves. Others advertise their innermost needs in personal ads. And Montreal artist Linda Dawn Hammond takes the personal ads of strangers and transforms them into carefully crafted and often funny self-portraits.
Hammond's current show, Personal Needs, juxtaposes her photographs with personal ads clipped from the classifieds. Each of the 15 black-and-white photos shows Hammond incarnated as the answer to a personal advertiser's dreams.
"Loving Christian gentleman, 46, 6'1", slender, scripturally divorced parent. Seeks truly, born-again biblical wife, of average size, who is organized, clean, loves children and desires love, not riches," reads one ad. Above it is an image of a neatly dressed '50s-era housewife vacuuming intently, staring down. Just beside the vacuum nozzle, a Bible lies open on the floor- Hammond's "born-again biblical wife" is boning up on scripture even as she tidies house.
The humour in the housewife image is lypical of the rest of the series. The pictures are funny, but not light hearted. The photographs are still poignant - perhaps a reflection of the needs and desires of the real-people behind the original ads.
Hammond says Personal Needs can be seen as a warning of the danger inherent in trying to become to another's ideal. "People can end up becoming a projection of how another thinks they should be...and then never learn about their own possibilities."
Or, the same pictures can be a celebration of all the possibilities that exist in each person. She says her series shows "that one can become almost anything."
Many of the fantasy-fulfilling characters Hammond became in making Personal Needs draw on personas she actually adopted at some time in her life. "I'm a person who has gone through many transformations," she says.
No signs indicate she plans to stop either the series or the transformations any time soon. Her worn notebook holds page after page of clipped personal ads yet to be "done." She points to a sliver of yellowed newsprint and smiles.
"I need to find a coffin to do that one."
Personal Needs at Bar Les 4 Z'Arts (4282 St-Denis) to March 9, 1993