Studio Portraits

Hannah’s practice brings together performance, portraiture, optical illusion, and still life, finding inventive ways to highlight both stillness and movement simultaneously through photography. For this exhibition, Hannah will present a new series of photographic and video works which will connect early art-making theories and practices with contemporary and collaborative techniques. This series builds upon Hannah’s interest in art history (particularly the tradition of the tableau vivant) as well as early photographic practices, taking one or more notable historical Canadian artworks as his point of departure.

Over the past two decades, Hannah has explored several ideas in conversation with many historical artworks, including projects such as Age of Bronze (2004) shot at the National Gallery of Canada, and Unwrapping Rodin (2010) in collaboration with the Musée Rodin in Paris. His photographic works are often a collaborative effort – most notably in his recent series The Decameron Retold (2019) and The Raft of the Medusa (Saint-Louis) (2016), where Hannah draws on the contributions of community members to craft various elements of the project, including building and painting sets, sewing costumes, and acting as models where required. This new project for Capture will come together over several months in early 2021, to be presented in April for the Festival.

Through the application of modern cinematic approaches to historical work, Hannah’s exhibition will continue to expand the artist’s improvisational approach to production and community engagement, while presenting familiar moments in art history within new contexts, melding the historical and contemporary.