December 2018
INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
Hanna Vogel
INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION
Hanna Vogel
Artist Statement
I create imaginary landscapes and architectural growths to investigate the effects of entropy on our environments. I transform commonplace materials like ceramic, paper, and wire into unfamiliar forms and textures that evoke growth, decay, and the tenuousness of our surroundings. Through the vernacular of craft, my work addresses aspects of physical existence on the edge of potential destruction. The physical and connotative properties of these materials speak of the possibility of their demise: porcelain lattices defy their structural improbability to reflect their fragility back on the viewer; a wrinkled, skin-like coating of paper is stained and slowly decayed by the rusting of the steel wire skeleton that supports it.
Combined with this materiality, the large-scale format of my installation work requests the physical and spatial consideration of the viewer when interacting with it. The visibility of decay in the rust-stained and peeling paper and the ostentatious fragility of the porcelain implicate human interaction as source of potential destruction. By openly displaying their own physical vulnerabilities, these objects call on the viewer to examine the entropic nature of their own human body and its relationship to its surroundings. In doing so, my works aims to cultivate compassion for the physical world around us and for our own complex and ephemeral bodies.
I create imaginary landscapes and architectural growths to investigate the effects of entropy on our environments. I transform commonplace materials like ceramic, paper, and wire into unfamiliar forms and textures that evoke growth, decay, and the tenuousness of our surroundings. Through the vernacular of craft, my work addresses aspects of physical existence on the edge of potential destruction. The physical and connotative properties of these materials speak of the possibility of their demise: porcelain lattices defy their structural improbability to reflect their fragility back on the viewer; a wrinkled, skin-like coating of paper is stained and slowly decayed by the rusting of the steel wire skeleton that supports it.
Combined with this materiality, the large-scale format of my installation work requests the physical and spatial consideration of the viewer when interacting with it. The visibility of decay in the rust-stained and peeling paper and the ostentatious fragility of the porcelain implicate human interaction as source of potential destruction. By openly displaying their own physical vulnerabilities, these objects call on the viewer to examine the entropic nature of their own human body and its relationship to its surroundings. In doing so, my works aims to cultivate compassion for the physical world around us and for our own complex and ephemeral bodies.
Hanna Vogel is an artist, writer, and educator in Philadelphia. Born and raised in rural northern California, she received a BFA from the California College of the Arts and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. In her art, she uses craft-based materials and techniques in non-traditional ways to make sculptures and installations. She has shown her work nationally and internationally and has presented at conferences and published papers internationally. She has received fellowships/grants from Yaddo, Anderson Ranch, Haystack, Penland, the California College of the Arts, the Fiber Art Network, Ringholz Studios, and Fleisher Art Memorial. She will be a resident artist at Furman University, I-Park, and Sculpture Space in 2018.
For inquiries contact the artist directly:
Hanna Vogel
http://www.hannavogel.com/
Hanna Vogel
http://www.hannavogel.com/