Shifting Ground By Hannah Fox
In her latest collection, Shifting Ground, Naarm/Melbourne-based artist Hannah Fox explores the changing impressions of a landscape and the space between what’s seen and remembered.
Words HANDE RENSHAW Photos MARTINA GEMMOLA Styling ANDREA MOORE
‘I don’t want to reproduce a particular place. I’m interested in the fragments that remain: a colour, a shape, the quality of light or the feeling of weather,’ shares Hannah Fox.
Saltwater by Hannah Fox.
On Reflection by Hannah Fox.
“I’ve never felt the need to capture or document everything. I tend to notice the smaller things that catch my attention — an unexpected colour, the edge of a rock, a shadow, changing light or the way different forms sit against each other.”
Surface Tension by Hannah Fox.
‘That point where the work feels connected to something real, but has also taken on a life of its own, is where I find it most interesting.’
Created during her time in North-East Tasmania and on the Northern New South Wales coast, Hannah Fox’s latest exhibition Shifting Ground captures the evolving impressions of a landscape and the fragments she remembers and leaves behind.
Visited earlier this year, the two locations formed part of different residency experiences: one Hannah organised for herself in Tasmania, followed by an artist residency she was selected for with Northern Rivers Community Gallery at Ignite Studios.
While immersed in the two landscapes, Hannah found herself more drawn to what she was taking away with her than to recording a place at a particular moment in time. ‘Often it wasn’t a specific view, but a colour combination, the quality of the light, a texture or the feeling of the weather. When I returned to my Melbourne studio, those fragments became starting points for the paintings,’ she shares.
Hannah’s work sits between the abstract and the recognisable, allowing elements of the landscape to emerge without being completely defined. ‘I like leaving room for interpretation — for someone to bring their own experiences and associations to a painting,’ says Hannah, ‘What I see in a work may be completely different to what someone else sees, and I really enjoy that.’
This is how Hannah experiences a place and holds onto its elements. Rather than reproducing a view, she holds onto fragments – shapes, light and atmosphere – which become something else through the act of painting. ‘I’ve always been drawn to that space where something feels familiar without being completely defined. There might be a form that suggests a horizon, a rock face, water or some other element of landscape, but I don’t want to tell the viewer exactly what they’re looking at,’ she says.
For Hannah, a smaller work within the collection titled Escarpment best captures what she was exploring in this body of work. The piece came together intuitively, its shapes and forms emerging naturally and without conscious thought.
‘As it developed, I began to recognise something of the cliff faces and coastal landscape of the Northern Rivers in it, which had been a particular influence during my residency,’ says Hannah. Within the piece, forms evoke rock faces, ridges, water and changes in elevation, without being tied to a specific place.
‘I think that’s why the painting feels particularly connected to this collection. It emerged through the act of painting rather than from an intention to depict a landscape, yet somehow those memories of place found their way into it. It sits in that space between what I experienced, what I remembered and what the painting became.’
First access to Shifting Ground will be available through The Collector Preview on Monday 14 September via Hannah’s website, followed by the online release on Thursday 17 September.
To stay up to date with Hannah Fox’s work, visit her website or follow @hannahfoxart
