“Bouquet with Sunflowers” (2026), hand-sewn metallic fabrics, polyurethane-coated fabric, upholstered architectural fiberboard, extruded acrylic, stainless steel fixings, 75 x 44 x 7 centimeters. All images courtesy of the artist and Better Go South, shared with permission
Ant Hamlyn Taps into the Optimism of Y2K in Squished Floral Sculptures
Art
Kate Mothes
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Glossy, synthetic, and very compressed, Ant Hamlyn’s botanicals are unlike anything you’d find in nature. He taps into the aesthetic of Y2K and the early 2000s, when early computer graphics, sci-fi, and teen punk melded into a kind of optimistic, tech-forward visual experience. Think early flip phones, polyurethane miniskirts, and Now That’s What I Call Music on CD.
Better Go South, which presents the artist’s current solo exhibition Soft // Chrome, describes the artist’s approach as “celebrating our human capacity to find beauty and connection even within the most manufactured environments.”
Hamlyn’s playful, cartoonish works center around stuffed and squished polyurethane flowers, invoking a kind of “liquid metal” redux that nods to our past optimism about technology while acknowledging the anxieties that have evolved and continue to grow in the post-digital age.
See the works by appointment in Stuttgart, and check out more on the artist’s Instagram.
