Coverup belongs to a group of work that artist Harmony Hammond calls “near monochrome” paintings, in which layers of paint, handmade straps, and rope are layered into a three- dimensional composition. By using only red ocher in this work, Hammond transforms the act of painting from representation (making a picture) to creation of something sculptural and organic. Hammond often describes the canvases of her paintings as “skins, ” explaining, “the grommeted straps are wrapped around the painting as objects and body (suggesting bandage, bondage, binding) but do not cinch or constrict. The straps do not hold the painting together; the paint (and therefore the act of painting) does.”
