WORKHOUSE (Moss)
I was invited by Naomi Lethhbridge to take part in an exhibition that she was curating around the theme of intensive labour. For this, I wanted to make a sited piece around the location of the gallery. After observing and documenting the area I became very drawn to a section of moss that could be seen whilst standing in the gallery. Due to the moisture as a result of poor drainage, this rich green moss had begun to draw itself, creating a beautiful pattern across the red brick of the wall behind.

I wanted to add to and continue this organic drawing by adding my own marks to the wall. A subtle intervention that draws attention to the themes I have been looking at more recently with regard to nature versus the urban environment.

BLANKEXPRESSION 2011
I submitted a proposal for the exhibition BlankExpression which built on the ideas I put forward for CUBEOpen 2010 (See Below)

Here are some images of the work that I made, followed by a synopsis of the work.

Synopsis of Work
I am interested in how our society establishes institutions to ensure that the physical environment and people’s social behaviour remain under its determining influence. This has lead to a basic division between the minority who determine the topology of urban living and the majority who are forced to passively accept its given form in their daily lives. And as nature is seen to be a threat to the stability of the infrastructure of society; untamed and always moving towards anarchy, it is similarly repressed. Control is exerted upon the consciousness of people through the encoding of the physical environment into a highly complex structure of inter-related symbols that exhibit their separation from nature. A perfect example of this encoding of the physical environment can be seen in front of the new BLANKSPACE building, in the form of two square bushes that have been grown within a redbrick mount. Through ordering ‘nature’ into this repeated pattern within the constraints of the square concrete slabs, I am referencing the fact that most natural elements within a city are held within a fixed framework, intended as something to look at and admire from a distance.


Here are the two square bushes that have been grown within a redbrick mount, the initial inspiration for the work:

CUBEOpen 2010
Here are some images of work from this years CUBEOpen exhibition which I was selected for.

Exhibition runs 19th November - 22nd January 2011

CUBEOpen 2010 is the UK’s only annual open competition and exhibition of its kind! Launched in 2007, artists, architects and designers are invited to apply with work that reflects current trends and debates surrounding the spaces and places in which we live, each year the exhibition highlights contemporary insights into the urban environment. The CUBEOpen receives applications from around the globe, visitors to the exhibition will have the unique opportunity to see the diverse and engaging ways that artists, architects and designers have been influenced by our surroundings.

Selected artists include:

ALNIS STAKLE, ESKILD BECK, HANNAH WILES, CARLY FISCHER, ALBAN LOW, CAITLIN MASLEY, ELIZABETH WEST, CHRIS PICKUP, BEN COVE, ORTELIUS DREW, EMILY SPEED, DARA MCGRATH, LEE CAMPBELL, SHAN HUR, BEARD AND FERGUSSON, YAEL SCHMIDT, DAVID THEOBALD, DAY BOWMAN, JOE KENNEDY, JAMES O'HANLON, MATTHEW VERDON, CHRIS WRIGHT, MARY RUTH WALSH, URBAN (COL)LABORATORY, MARC PROVINS, SHAUN PAUL, MICK TIMPSON.

Gallery 1, CUBEOpen 2010, images © Nick Harrison

Forgotten No.2, 2010, by Shan Hur, CUBEOpen 2010, images © Nick Harrison

Throwing It All Away #4, Throwing It All Away #8, by Carly Fisher (backrounf Tokyo Palms 2010 & Still Building Within the Wall - Towards Jerusalem Westbank Palestine 2010, by James O'Hanlon), CUBEOpen 2010, images © Nick Harrison

Gallery 3 & 4, CUBEOpen 2010, image ©Nick Harrison

 

Egg-nest-home-country-universe 2010, by Emily Speed, CUBEOpen 2010, images © Nick Harrison

Press Coverage
26/11/10 Manchester Evening News 
30/11/10 Metro
18/12/10 Guardian
11/12/10 Guardian

Recent Work

Here are some examples of the exploartory interventions I have been conducting in my urban environment:

Copper Wire on Sign Post:

 Blue Chalk on Pavement:

Drawing Pins in Tree Trunk:

Gold Foil on Brick:

Stitching on Benches:

 Blue Dye and Pencil Crayon on Paving Stone:

Beads in Green Moss:

Cable Ties on Pipe:

Goldfinger on Bricks:

 

Green Dots on Wall:

Artist Statement

Hannah Wiles recently graduated with First Class Honours from the school of Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is currently studying for her Masters Degree in Fine Art Textiles. Her practice is rooted in the urban environment and deals with issues surrounding dereliction and abandonment. She is concerned with regeneration, modernisation, and the smoothing over of the past to make way for a uniform space of consumption.

In her work she responds poetically to her built environment, drawing attention to the public realm that appears to have been rendered invisible to most through sheer force of habit. Working intuitively on city structures such as lamp posts, benches and brick walls, she uses non conventional medium such as thread, felt, drawing pins or glitter, in order to highlight their form. In this way, she would like to re-establish a sense of ownership within public space and reawaken a sense of wonder to our mundane experience of the city. She likes the idea that the unexpected can sometimes be realised in the transformation of the cracks and gaps from lifeless spots to extraordinary vibrant sites.

Her work has been described as a form of site-specific interventionism, as she interacts with an existing space in a way that may challenge the expectations of the intended audience, in the hope of reconstructing the urban narrative.