HANNAH KNOX
Hannah Knox’s paintings reference Greek myth, art and fashion, they are made from a selection of fabrics and cloths, ostensibly unpainted they are stained, poured, dipped, printed or sprayed. Shape shifting, they fall from the ceiling, hang out on the floor or gather themselves up to make a stand-in body in the room; actively embracing the world beyond the wall.
Her recent series of unbodied shirt paintings began in lockdown in March 2020. Sitting between abstraction and figuration, line denotes form, as the flat surface shifts to becomes sculptural. The shirt paintings are a space to project; they are self-portraits, a still-life, a relic, an old friend, a wish-list item from an online basket, a hand me down. The figure is present, but the body is absent.
Online Laundry.
The windscreen wipers almost match
The rhythm of the song on the radio
It’s slightly out
It’s slightly out
A line of paint describes the form
slightly out
The line of paint
A collar
A figure, nobody
No body
Jacket, shirt, jumper
The object
Is solid and liquid
I had a shirt like this
Do you remember
Mine, yours
Linen on linen
Folded
Un-ironed
Put it in the virtual basket
The virtual shirt
We met before
I think
We met before
I’ll sing you a song
And take you back
To the cloth
On the grass
And the breeze
Brushed cotton
Leather and cedar
And the fathers and the lovers
And the club
Where we both wore plaid
And that summer in seersucker
The shirt is soft
The soft is neat
Hannah Knox was born in London, England, where she lives and works. She completed her MA in painting at the Royal College of Art in 2007 and has lectured in painting at a number of colleges and universities; including Chelsea School of Art, Oxford Brookes University and University of the Creative Arts Canterbury. Recent exhibitions include; “Greetings From Miami” at Hashimoto Contemporary, New York 2020, Common Property, at the Jerwood Space, London, UK, 2016. Solo exhibitions include Tempur, CSM Project Space, London, UK, 2015; ’BUFF’, Ceri Hand Gallery, London, UK, 2013; ‘Stoffbilder’, Take Courage, London, 2012. Group exhibitions include: Autocatalyticfuturegames, No Format, London UK, 2015; Reproduction Failure, Slate Projects, London, UK, 2014; Art Britannia, Madonna Building, Miami, USA 2013.