Frances Hansen

Week 18 31, July


Materials are important In Frances Hansen's practice. Say something about the materials she works with and reasons for choosing them, how does this relate to the idea of Gleaning? You can extend this by discussing the exhibitions we visited this week and the work of Judy Darragh. Go on to write about the materials you choose for use in your studio practice. What are they and why do you choose them?

It’s very interesting that Frances uses many varieties of material in her collection from the environment in her everyday life. These material including the package, wrapping paper, recycled bread tags, notes with text, canes, bottles, letter box, card board, bed post and board. She collects the recycled material and exploits those into her art workings. The combination of her thinking and imagination putting into her art works to recreate and renew the life of recycled material. This is a project about dissolution and re-materialization.
Sometimes the nothing-material became her source of objective images on her drawing. The process of painting, arranging and composing these images on the panel. Simplify the composition with clean images and spacing in simple color tones. Her drawing in the library looks like an un-finished work with simple composition which can make me feel very peaceful. It’s absolutely very suitable to hang in the library.
She collects the leftover stuffs randomly after shopping and hopes those can be used into her art works in the future. The process of collected bits and pieces, brought together by selection into the art works are very French practice of gleaning. She still continues and enjoys collecting what’s leftovers after using and shopping because it can amuse herself.
The work I practice on art must include the elements of my thinking, illustration and aesthetics. In contemporary art, it has became more flexible for artist to explore more and more mediums in it. I don’t mind what kind of medium on my works, but the works should be based on visual aesthetic. I prefer to collect some stunning decorated porcelain because I am used to do China Painting on porcelain. Toys and DVDs collection already became our family activities.

The Gleaning that means taking what’s left, gathering and revalue nothing into something. In Agnes Varda’s film Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse(The Gleaners and I)
The Gleaners François Millet (1857) . In the beginning of film, In this depiction of the rural life of nineteenth century France, we see three female figures gathering the leftovers after the harvest. It is known as gleaning. The un-shaped potatoes, some comes with heart are discarded by the farmers can be undertaken by the poor after harvest. The gleaning is still existed in modern society in French. It’s a kind of social issuing in French.

Judy Darragh ‘s exhibition at Two Rooms Gallery, Newton until 1, Aug. 2009. Judy’s art practice has been distinctive as she consistently works on the margins, railing against conventions and expectations. From early works in the late 1980s made from op-shop materials and ready made material. She uses cheap material to DIY and remake into colorful objects with luxury visual effects. It’s quite different to the simplicity style with France’s although they both use non-valued material to make something from nothing. Judy reflects that “The maxim of the Bahaus, which I loved studying at school, was ‘less is more’, So when I started out I took the opposite approach of ‘more is more’ and embarked on making things with a passion, teaching at secondary school during the day, getting up at 5am on a Sunday to go to the markets and plugging in the glue gun at night.”

“Art news New Zealand, autumn 2009”
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~waste/timeline/story-pic1.html