I am sure many of you will remember Hammial’s huge retrospective exhibition Creature Comforts held at the gallery in 2008.

Indeed you may have purchased one or two of his sculptures, since an overwhelming number of works were purchased by people in Orange.

It was one of the most successful exhibitions held at the gallery, extremely popular, with record attendance figures. 

Hammial was born in America in 1937 to a well-to-do family in Detroit, Michigan. He discovered poetry, art, philosophy and history at Ohio University.

 After graduating with honours in English literature and philosophy, he led an amazingly active, bohemian existence. He travelled the world for 11 years, visiting 81 countries. Since arriving in Australia in 1972, he has a long list of achievements in writing, publishing and sculpting. 

Hammial explains how he discovered sculpture: 

“I didn’t start making sculpture seriously until 1968, and then only because I had a serious accident.

“While trying to get down to a wrecked fishing boat on a small beach in Sausalito (California) just below the Golden Gate Bridge I fell from a 35 foot high cliff. 

The object was to remove the compass and other pieces of brass from the pilot house. But the cliff was unstable, and I went down in a landslide, and managed to break my leg into three pieces, dislocate an arm and rip my chest open.

Lucky to be alive, I was rescued by the coastguard who had been called by two painters working on the bridge. To make a long story short, I ended up in a body cast from chest to waist to right foot.

 As I was taking pain killers and was weak from the injuries I wasn’t able to write poetry (an obsessive and prolific writer) and consequently was feeling frustrated. 

What to do?

 One day two friends loaded me into my big Plymouth sedan and we drove out to a nearby tip. With me saying yes or no to objects they pulled from the tip they filled the boot and, returning to my house in San Francisco, placed the objects on a large table in the cellar. Hobbling around on crutches, in two months I made 40 pieces of sculpture. 

And have been making it ever since.

Phil’s exhibition, Mr Odongo Okono and others of his ilk features around 60 of his recent figurative sculptures made from found objects.

 He has written 20 books on poetry, as well as having 33 solo exhibitions. The exhibition continues until March 1.