REBECCA HANNON: CONTEMPORARY CAMOUFLAGE
May 6, 2017 – June 17, 2017
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Rebecca Hannon creates colorful, sculptural necklaces in complex interlocking forms. This new series in inspired by folk art picture frames. Models are first made in cardboard and then transformed in formica.
A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Hannon worked as a goldsmith for five years in New York City before attending the Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste in Munich, Germany on a Fulbright scholarship. Five years later she returned to North America and currently teaches, lectures and has her own workshop.
Her work can be found in public and private collections internationally. In her work, she strives to create evocative objects that double as fine souvenirs. Place and time are documented through the process of making. A fleeting memory, a lost bauble or an everyday object are refashioned to create a small celebratory ornament.
Statement
The perception of pattern on form is the focus of my current work. A historical system of protective ship coloration called “Dazzle Camouflage” inspires my recent line of inquiry. Dazzle Camouflage was used on WWI warships, and never sought to conceal as a traditional camouflage pattern would, rather to confuse. The angular forms painted on a hull represented a 2D flattened ship, with a heightened perspective, that gave the appearance of traveling in a different direction. Dazzle caused “visual disruption” and confused estimates of speed and direction (necessary for launching a torpedo.)
My current research is called “Contemporary Camouflage” and asks questions of how we conceal or reveal ourselves, as is often the case in the animal kingdom. (Coloration and mimicry in nature influenced early ideas about camouflaging in the theatre of war). My adornment can fade into the stripey blouse you are wearing, or jump out like a rosy wine stain. Choices made about signs and symbols give insight into our true selves. The work I make embodies a hope that it will journey into the world, to set a small fleet of wearers adrift with a sense of joy and possibilities for the future.