Sculpture

The sculpture is the last sculpture she made 20 years ago under Eugene Hon at the WITS Technicon. This sculpture was originally inspired by the narrative of Palm Sunday of Christ on the donkey.

Hamman interprets it as the workers toiling at the bottom with the strength and dominance that they place in society. She was fascinated by the geometry of Escher at that stage and attempted to do the positive and negative fish in the middle class. They are all desperately trying to conform to the tight constraints of the corporate world in an attempt to reach the top.

The lucky fish is the one that has managed to refine himself into the top position and is able to display more of his true character (thus the more realistic portrayal), but he is still trapped within that system which is why she questions how lucky he actually is. Without the structure beneath him, he will not survive.