Essays

It is twenty years since the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 and now seems an appropriate time to look back at what we might have lost in terms of culture, identity and a sense of freedom. In this age, when festivals are a by-word for corporate sponsorship, high security fences and armies of security guards, has the real festival spirit and the lifestyles that were nurtured in this e

Tom Hunter ‘The Way Home’, 2012.   In this book I have set out many bodies of work that I have created over the last twenty-five years, whilst making my journey through the streets of Hackney, trying to make sense of this urban maze and find my way home. It seems strange now to think back to a time of sitting in the pub in Blandford, Dorset with my mate Fred and discussing our nights itinerary of catching the tu

From The Ghetto to the National Gallery, Tom Hunter continues to explore themes that depict his local neighbourhood, drawing on art historical references to paint Hackney in a different light to the usual lurid newspaper stories of urban blight. Three years ago Paul Wombell curated a group exhibition for Photo España in Madrid drawing attention to what he said was a small but growing band of photographers who were re

Tom Hunter has an approach to work that is both serious and considered. Rather than the veil of humour and irony that masks much of contemporary art, Hunter’s work is unashamedly artful. Moreover, his position is not solely expressed by nods to the story of art. For equally, the work is socially aware and engaged with the chronicle of our contemporary world. Hunter inhabits a place of his own creation (much lik

BBC Radio 3, March 2011 In this essay I will try to describe the driving influence behind my art, in the work of Johannes Vermeer, who lived in 17th century Holland. This came as a complete surprise to me when I was a young upstart, striving for social justice in a squat in Hackney. While looking for a radical approach to my art, I found a revolutionary artist working in the most traditional of art forms. I first cam