‘F*CK’

Fuck That, Fuck Him, Fuck This, Fuck You,  Fuck. 

‘Fuck That Fuck Him’  explores the relationship between language, aggression and visual expression. Spray-painted words accumulate across the surface, obscuring one another until language begins to function as image rather than text. The work examines how language carries emotional and visual weight. The profanity is immediately recognisable, but through repetition and layering it becomes increasingly abstract. The viewer is encouraged to look at the shape, texture and physicality of the words rather than simply reading them.

This is particularly relevant to the broader direction of Max Hammond Studio, where text and personal/confessional subject matter have appeared across different printmaking and mixed-media works. The studio’s existing work includes text-based drypoints such as You Used Me and You Left Me With a Void, demonstrating an ongoing interest in using written language within emotionally charged visual work.

Using spray paint, layered text and overspray to construct an intentionally confrontational composition. Large, gestural words dominate the surface, while partially obscured phrases remain visible beneath them. Rather than presenting language as something clean and immediately readable, Hammond allows the text to overlap, bleed, drip and disappear, creating a tension between communication and visual obstruction.

The repeated use of the word “FUCK” gives the work an aggressive immediacy. However, the repetition also begins to detach the word from its conventional linguistic function. It becomes a visual mark, almost equivalent to a brushstroke. The viewer encounters the word simultaneously as language, gesture and image.

The use of spray paint is important here. Unlike carefully painted lettering, the aerosol creates soft edges, overspray, transparency and accidental marks. Some letters appear deliberately controlled while others bleed into the surrounding surface. The drips introduce gravity and physicality, recording the movement of paint across the fabric.

Earlier text remain partially visible beneath later applications, producing a sense of erasure rather than complete removal. The surface therefore resembles accumulated thoughts, statements or emotional responses—one phrase replacing another while never completely disappearing. The soft pinks, blues, greens and whites create an almost delicate atmosphere, which is then disrupted by dark, heavy lettering and aggressive profanity. While Hammond’s deliberately crude spray-painted lettering moves the language away from polished advertising and towards graffiti, protest, pornography and street visual culture