A thought for disruption 2018
cast bronze, powder-coated steel and FilmPro orange acrylic
Commissioned by DEADLY PONIES.
Hannah Valentine is particularly interested in the state of the physical body in an age increasingly bathed in the digital. Her installations play up the tangible, centring on cast bronze versions of free weights that visitors are encouraged to heft, hold, and move about with. The surfaces of these entities show the artist’s fingerprints, while also being receptive to the heat from visitors’ bodies. Over time, like devotional statues in bronze found worldwide, they will take on a patina in areas that receive minimal touch, a sheen in those caressed with frequency.
In the context of Auckland Art Fair, A thought for disruption provides a release valve for those fatigued by endless looking without permission to touch. At the same time, it does not overlook or forsake the visual. The walls of the small ‘arena’, painted immaculately in blazing orange, not only evoke bodily energy, but also provide a foil for Valentine’s organic, sketchy sculptures and their more regular, architectural stands – creating the impression of the installation as a drawing in space, and one that is lent further texture by the bodies drifting into and moving round the frame.