HANNAH WOOLL

HANNAH WOOLL

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Hannah Wooll explores domestic space, interior life and the value associated with related objects and imagery. Her most recent practice is inspired by junk-shop sourced found media; starkly-lit, contrived photographs lifted from the pages of outmoded hobbyist manuals, ceramic figurines, family photographs, and internet sourced images. 

 

Wooll incorporates elements of these eclectic images into her paintings, collaging them together. She plays with scale and tests notions of familiarity, splicing and assembling, both referencing and deconstructing the original imagery. The effect is often off-kilter, maximising the potential of contrived images freed from their intended context. Visual research of ceramic busts and figurines (as well as a related sculptural practice), has led to the repeated use of figures which exist within the duality of subject and object, portrait and still life, something which fascinates Wooll. 

 

The use of specific colours and pattern is important, derived from these reference books from the 1950's -80s, and nod towards perceived notions of femininity and the domestic space. The inky layers of paint seep into the painting boards, staining the surface, linking to the printed page and small scale watercolours. Wooll’s women and girls appear awkward yet untroubled by their unnatural surroundings, acknowledging the style and era of the books with which she works, as well as the individual women that have pored over these home craft manuals, filled with arguably outdated feminine pursuits and domestic recreation. The dreamlike and static qualities of the work are due to Hannah taking advantage of the duplicity of unnatural lighting, allowing a two-dimensional feel, lending a lack of naturalism. We swiftly become caught up in these quietly absurd moments, the image paused; melodramatic fragments of still and uneasy tension.

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