HANNAH SHORT

"Hannah Short's latest body of work for her first solo exhibition 'See you tomorrow' has developed over the last year, largely during lockdown. The works are in two parts; small postcard sized pieces portray a window into her own view of the world, shaped by close confines. A safe, intimate space full of humour, with an unlimited examination of detail, where packaging, surfaces, actions, the minutiae of life are documented like a diary entry, in hyper coloured realism, the dial turned up to max in heightened off-skew hues. Larger works in scale show a more uncomfortable relationship; observing the outside with a sense of foreboding, fear and anxiety. 

 

The title of the show comes from the recent painting 'See you tomorrow', which is the sister painting to 'The Beginning of the End' - where a woman, (presumably the artist) is placed centrally, against a backdrop of a world about to end in a cataclysm of environmental disaster, just over the horizon line. You sense it is coming, inevitable, and you, the watcher, like her are helpless.

 

These internal landscapes of fear are amplified by the external landscapes, unnatural with puce skies and red foliage. They are recognisably altered from the familiar. Similar to a wanderer in a lucid dreamscape, this is part of you, a psychological projection, but nevertheless real in feeling. The landscapes of lockdown, made of the immediate and mundane, detail and pattern are given a heightened importance, and she plays with their pseudo-silly relevance - fluffy novelty slippers, patterned leggings, nose rings and computer consoles vying for picture space with a cup of tea; the small things become big things and the big scary things become manageably at bay, pushed to the edge, just over the shoulder. The most direct confrontation are the self portraits - a head on examination. Big blue eyes, red lipstick - they are brave and accepting, uncompromising, a strength evident. The unnatural skin tones are the language of someone seeking to rise above seeing the mundane and acknowledging the power of what is seen beneath masks, surfaces and the wrapping of the every day."

Zoë Gingell

 

Director

Cardiff M.A.D.E