Rebecca Hammett’s fascination with creating art through building, drawing, and painting started as far back as she can remember “I regard art not as just a career path but as a way of life, what’s more as a means of human communication”. Rebecca is dyslexic and sees creative practices as a language that was more accessible to her when she was young “Art was always more in a language I could understand gave me a system of being able to digest and communicate in a fashion more suited to my thinking in it could morph between the lines of cognitive thought”.
After completing college, she completed a fine art degree at University of Wales Caerleon, Newport in 2010 then went on to achieve a PGCE teaching qualification in 2011, later she completed a master’s degree in with distinction in fine art from Cardiff School of Art and Design in 2015.
During her master’s degree her creative practice took a different turn when she started combining various methods and techniques to create drawing/painting through performance using what she refers to as a ‘body apparatus’. She also started to use the name TEMMAH.
She uses the name TEMMAH which is taken from a razor blade company as the slogan for the product states “the blade for satisfaction”. She says “TEMMAH is me and is not me simultaneously, she has the qualities I do not have and does what I cannot do for myself she is a steppingstone for me to free myself from my own restraints. I cannot indicate clearly where she ends, and I begin”.
After the birth of her first son the subject matter of the ‘body apparatus’ evolved to include exploring her position in regards to social, economic and activist objectives ‘my children are important to me and it seemed necessary to include my emotions in my practice’ this seemed to be a natural development for her work.
Sensory performance video
Performance
From this point onwards she created performances for art collectives including tactile BOSCH and Concentric in Cardiff, Newport and beyond. She was accepted for a ‘Draw to Perform’ residency supported by Arts Council of Wales in 2019.
Since the pandemic started, she has continued her live practice online and has given digital workshops. She has also developed a second persona for presenting her physical work known as Jayne Dust.
In 2020-2021 Covid had a drastic effect on performance and live work, and it seems essential to her that live work continued through lockdown by using digital communication where possible. Recent online projects include a collaboration for the ‘Anywhere Festival’ in Australia.
In 2018 Rebecca collaborated with Stephanie Roberts and Ermintrude Wheeler on an exhibition called ‘Follow the Thread where she created a performance piece called ‘Voice Recognition’. In the piece she reflected on her experience of dyslexia and what it meant for other people. She decided to focus on the everyday obstructions and frustrations when using voice-recognition software something she had personally experienced.
Public Performance on Brighton Beach
Performance
She found that ‘there were violent frustrations when using voice-recognition software before you use it you are required to speak in a sequence of words so the software can recognise your voice and adapt accordingly. Even when well-spoken and the words read without mistake there are roadblocks in the form of the software not been able to understand what you’re saying creating a failure in communication’.
In addition to creating her own work she also runs creative arts workshops. Currently she is filming ‘The Flower Press’ workshop which will be presented online on the 2nd August 2021 for the National Museum of Wales as part of the ‘Objects of Comfort’ project
You can find more information on her website at:
TEMMAH (squarespace.com).
