Artist Statement / CV
For me, places are experienced concretely, not as equations of function to form. In this sense, architecture is ‘not’ place until and unless we subvert it with the contents of our lives. In other words, places are where time takes route, and it is time in its forms of personal and social memory and in its connection to the cycles of nature that we have attempted to design ‘out’ of industrial society. For this reason I find it difficult to draw any form of inspiration from newly built developments that for me have no character and no history. They lack the vernacular layers of natural and social landscape that keep the world interesting. I am therefore against a monoculture and have an interest in globalisation and what the effect of the global on the local appears to be. Through my work I hope to resist commodification, globalisation and uniformity by highlighting differences, imperfections and the marks of human existence.
Working on site-specific installations and projects, I respond intuitively to my surroundings. I am particularly interested in the textures that surround us and the random markings that go unnoticed. Through drawing a connection for people to a particular place, I hope to give a small part of that place back to them upon discovering the work. I therefore take experiences and gather information in order to call attention to something. Utilising existing structures such as street furniture, my work rides the dominant culture physically and exposes social controls whilst its quiet nature has the ability to activate the consciousness of a place through subtle markings without disturbing it. In this way my work is a personal response to a place that is intended to resonate in some way with an unknown audience.
Qualifications and training
- 2010 MA Textiles, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
- 2007 BA Embroidery (First Class Honours), Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
- 2004 Foundation in Art and Design (Distinction), Chesterfield College, Chesterfield
Awards
- 2011 Awarded Bursary and Memebership of the Royal British Society of Sculptors http://rbs.org.uk/artists/hannah-wiles
Group exhibitions
- 2011 The Royal British Society of Sculptors, Bursary Winners Exhibition, London
- 2011 Workhouse, HIVE, Manchester
- 2011 BlankExpression, BlankSpace, Manchester
- 2010 CUBEOpen, CUBE Gallery, Manchester
- 2010 With These Walls We Are Shaped (Liverpool Biennial), Wolstenholme Creative Space, Liverpool
- 2010 MA Show, Holden Gallery, Manchester
- 2010 Didsbury Arts Festival, Didsbury, Manchester
- 2010 Hazard MMX, Oldham Street, Manchester
- 2010 WORK, The Hive, Manchester
