Topeka
Artist
Matthew Hanna
(American, born 1961)
Daten.d.
Medium3 pieces of steel, ceramic tiles on wood base
Dimensions22 × 16 × 4 in. (55.9 × 40.6 × 10.2 cm)
ClassificationsSculpture
Object numberUAC7286
DescriptionMatthew Hanna is an artist, curator, and educator who was born and raised in Detroit. He received his B.F.A. with a concentration in sculpture from the College for Creative Studies in 1986. Hanna’s studio, Rocky Ford Studio, is currently located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Nevertheless, he is still involved in the Detroit art scene; His work has been featured in many Detroit art galleries. Moreover, Hanna’s work has been displayed throughout the United States, including Michigan, New York, Florida, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Oregon. In addition to artmaking, Hanna has curated exhibitions for the Willis Gallery, Grey Gallery, Detroit Artists Market, Center Galleries (CCS), and the Ford Gallery at Wayne County Community College District. He is currently the Lead Preparator of Collections at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. As an educator, Hanna worked as an adjunct instructor in the Foundations department of the College for Creative Studies in 2001. He has received many awards throughout his career, including the CCS Alumni Juror’s Select: Featured Mid Career Artist in 2012, the Queen Elizabeth Award from the Slippery Weasel Society in 2010, a Slippery Weasel Society Induction in 2005, Best of Show in Southfield Michigan at Michigan Outdoor Sculpture V in 1995, and 1st Award Sculpture and Best of Show at the Michigan State Fair in Detroit in 1988 and 1987. Hanna describes his artmaking as “a self-educating process both as a person and as a practicing artist.” He considers himself a visual thinker; objects serve as his words, or mode of self-expression. He has explored different techniques throughout his career, drawing from “the everyday images and information-saturated world; considering simple, ordinary things that fill everyday life.” The content of his work is additive: rich in visual puns and symbols packed with profound meanings, “often to the point of inspiring poetic interpretation.” To add, Hanna’s work is “driven by history, faith, and fantasy.” He feels a spiritual devotion to the process of artmaking, “working repetitively until the materials and process become the content which records a dense diagram of layered pictorial references, a visual history that is meant to be navigated at different levels of engagement.” The visual histories Hanna creates pay tribute to folklore demigods, world book heroes, and personal histories that have touched his own life and that he hopes will “translate and speak to the viewer’s experience.” Hanna is also interested in appropriating popular images of modern culture to critique and explore the elements that make up our culture. Having grown up in Detroit, Hanna is also influenced by Detroit’s Cass Corridor art aesthetic, which was prevalent from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Hanna employs ceramic and steel for this untitled work and mounts it on a wood base.His color palette consists primarily of beige, blue and gray. Though very much an abstract work, some of the elements appear to be reminiscent of a water mill. Three pieces of steel are placed together in a rectangular form, paired with a wheel near the top of the composition. Perhaps this rectangular structure is what supports the wheel as it moves through the water. There are blue ceramic forms shaped like stones sprinkled around the water mill structure. Continuing on with the water mill theory, perhaps the blue ceramic stones represent the water the wheel glides through; the wooden blue platform may symbolize this as well. The industrial Cass Corridor aesthetic is very much at play here with Hanna’s use of steel and the wheel. To add, perhaps there is also some influence from African American assemblage artists from the 1960s and 1970s. Assemblage artists, such as John Outterbridge, Noah Purifoy, and Betye Saar created artwork using found objects. Outterbridge and Purifoy in particular utilized discarded objects and debris from the Watts rebellion in California in 1965. In doing so, these assemblage artists layered their work with physical layers of found objects along with layers of symbolism; Hanna creates a similar effect with his work, as detailed in his artist statement. He repurposes and layers the industrial material of steel with pieces of ceramic, and the layers of symbolism gradually unfold. Perhaps this symbolism takes on different forms and meanings for different viewers. Hanna’s choice to omit a title for this work gives viewers the freedom to construct their own interpretations that connect to their personal experiences.
Written by Angela Athnasios
Sources: https://rockyfordstudio.com/home.html
Jones, Kellie. South of Pico: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s. Duke University Press, 2017.
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