HANNAH DAY - Department of Art and Art History: University of Hawaii at Manoa

EXHIBITION

On view as a part of 2017 MFA THESIS EXHIBITIONS at

The Art Gallery at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
March 5 – April 7, 2017

Hannah Day presents The Grove, an installation of drawings and prints

These works in graphite and intaglio explore the uncertainty and perceived futility that consumes the life of the figure, a character explored through undefined narratives constructed primarily with repetitious imagery. A woman wearing a cage over her head like a helmet, wanders the world of her subconscious, seemingly alone. At moments she is joined by a second figure, at others, she is isolated in a dense thicket of trees. A series of graphite drawings appear ghostly on the page, smooth and seamless impressions of unassuming portraits. In contrast, installations assembled of cut elements from line etchings are pieced together with the texture of a puzzle being put together with the wrong pieces.

Artist Statement:
Picturing one’s mental space as a literal terrain to be traversed and explored, The Grove puts on display the mental wanderings of one individual. A female figure is shown traipsing about the locales that compose her inner landscape, a space made up of densely wooded areas and pockets of stark nothingness. In her travels she finds things hidden amongst the trees that continually dissolve her trust in the line between real and imagined. Subject matter is rendered with a minimal value range, highlighting the work’s consideration of the ephemerality of her psychology and the instability of her understanding of her self and all that exists around her.