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Hannah Westwood

Eye of the Storm

13 May until 11 June 2011

PV: 12 May, 7 - 9pm

In this new body of work, Westwood aims to document the physical and digital, the architectural and corporeal, and the real and fantasy landscapes around her. By reappropriating and abstracting the architectonic languages of her surroundings, this installation of drawing creates a personal yet universal vocabulary through a process of destruction. The exhibition includes a site-specific drawing encompassing the entire wall space. Eye of the Storm is concerned with the increasingly complex character and pace of the 21st century. Particularly, the ever changing facades of our physical and digital landscapes, as well as, the types of fleeting interaction forged within.

From the cataclysmic explosion at the centre of the drawing where energy and guts convulse and splurge to the constant push and pull: the viewer sees a soft flow, but also a violent battle between forms, structures, matter and flesh. The outcome is abstract battlefields, apocalyptic scenes and dystopian visions of a space in chaos. Creating an overwhelming influx of information, Eye of the Storm highlights social concerns of power, control, security and personal narrative. The work is reminiscent of sci-fi scenes or Star Trek in warp drive; being lost in hyperspace. Westwood asks: Are we riding the hyperspacial highway, or being pulled off the beaten track into dangerous territory? Wherever the place, it’s dark, violent, messy and in fast forward.

Hannah Westwood (b.1983) lives and works in London. She received a BA in Contemporary Textile Practices from Norwich School of Art and Design (2005) and an MFA in Fine Art Textiles from Goldsmiths, University of London (2007). Westwood has shown internationally including exhibitions in Germany and the United Kingdom. Coinciding with her art practice she also works in a range of educational and creative settings from community to youth focused projects. She develops resources, leads projects and supports organisations in delivering art, design, regeneration, built environment and textile sessions and projects. Organisations include Flour, Fundamental Architectural Inclusion and Occupy My Time. Westwood is also a Fashion and Textiles tutor on a BTEC National Diploma, Art Foundation course in Norwich and trained Arts Award advisor, delivering summer programmes to Young Offenders in Lewisham annually. Westwood has recently been selected as Artist in Residence at Middlesex University for the next 2 years.