Flowing as Frozen I, 2020

Hand blown glass, ice, steel hooks, rubber strap, bolt, hand spun copper, salt crystals.

455 x 255 x 200 cm (glass)

Carrier (Pond), 2023

Lost-wax cast iron, hand blown glass, pond water, aquatic plants, ceramic pebble, steel.
130 x 40 x 40 cm

ARTWORK STATEMENT

Flowing as Frozen: a glass and ice condensation piece. The ice placed inside the hand blown glass vessel begins as a solid crystal, melts into a flowing liquid, before cooling and condensing within the glass amorphous solid. As the ice melts inside the glass vessel, beads of condensation form on the outside of the glass and slowly drip and collect in the copper dish containing salt crystals. The water gradually saturates and dissolves the salt before evaporating and drying into the atmosphere. As the water, copper  and salt interact a natural verdigris patination is formed on the copper, over time the degree and hue of verdigris becomes more intense and the salt continually morphs between a congealed saline fluid and salt crystal formations.

Carrier (Pond): Iron casts of the artist’s cupped hands cradle a glass vessel. The process of making the piece involves blowing molten glass directly into the cast-iron hands, once the glass cools it retains the imprint of the gesture, the memory of touch and interaction between the materials. Within the glass is pond water and aquatic plants, the gesture suggests a transient attempt to hold water, exploring the idea of rivers and ponds as flowing vessels, containers for sediments, memories and lifeforms.

BIOGRAPHY

Hannah Rowan (b. Brighton, UK 1990) is a British multidisciplinary artist based in London, UK. Her work explores the slippery complexities of water that draws together a liquid relationship between the human body and geological and ecological systems. She works across sculpture, installation, performance, video and sound to explore the uncertain form of materials. She is interested in exploring notions of bodies of water, vessels, animacy of matter and the temporal transformation of materials. She is informed by Hydrofeminist theory alongside situated, embodied and submerged field research, from the Atacama Desert to the High Arctic, to learn from aquatic systems and with the animacy of the more-than-human world. 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

6 – Clean water and sanitation

13 – Climate Action

14 – Life Below Water

15 – Life on Land