I want to put all the frameworks in a box and shake it around, and then pull out new amalgamations of things like squishing out a weird blend of coloured playdough through a hole.
I want to lay out the works like a pile of leaves, and then jump into them, swish through them with my feet, letting something sweep up onto a wall, another to the ceiling, one that has slid out the door.
I want to make a place where the eyes can roam around darting from one line to the next like when your eyes jump from a sign, to a tree, to a dog outside of the car window.
I want to slice open my brain like a splayed pig so that I can lay out my thoughts and connections and have them roll along a conveyor belt for all to see.
I want to throw everything into a pool of water and stand looking down over it, and see myself reƒlected back.
For the MA Week, Hannah McDonald will take over di9ferent spaces at Hordaland Kunstsenter with a site-specific exhibition that opens her process to the audience. Drawings and prints extend beyond the main exhibition space into the rest of the building, while furniture from the cafe has been moved into the gallery. Hannah approaches each room at the art centre as equal to the next, breaking down the traditional spatial hierarchy of the institution – mirroring the way she views all of her works as equally significant. The exhibition includes drawings on paper and plastic, monoprints on paper and fabric, etchings, screenprints, oil paintings on wood, laser engravings, overhead projections, black and white photographs, and photocopied research material, created during the past year and a half of her masters course.
In bathroom by the café, a sound piece titled 99 questions I have about my art practice (duration: 12’02’’) plays on loop, while the kitchen features multiple works including a monoprinted cotton curtain. Hannah has intervened in the bookshop, both curating the book selection and incorporating her own elements into the shelving display.
From outside the building, viewers can experience four site-specific pen drawings on the second-floor windows. These works are best seen after hours, when the o9fice lights are turned o9f with spotlights illuminating the works, ensuring that the art remains visible to the public throughout the day and night.
Hannah will continue to work in the space during the art centre’s opening hours, and keep the exhibition fluid and in a state of transformation through interventions, drawing, writing, reading and talking.
The artist will host three events during the exhibition period: Open Process Night on Wednesday 5th February, a Drawing Club event on Sunday eth February and a Kitchen Dinner on Saturday 15th February.
HANNAH MCDONALD (b. 1993, Canterbury) is currently studying a Master of Fine Arts at the Art Academy in Bergen. She did her BA(Hons) in Painting and Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art, during which she went on an Erasmus exchange at the Valand Academy, Göteborg. Her time there left an imprint on her and after finishing her BA she moved to Göteborg where she lived for 8 years, running gallery Upper Hand from 2019-2021. She has taken part in Open Space Zeitz, Germany (2017 & 2019), had solo shows at Galleri 54 (2019) and KC Väst (2023) in Göteborg and currently runs Thingness gallery with her partner Martin Holm in their apartment.
The MA WEEK is a collaboration between Hordaland Kunstsenter and the Art Academy – Department of Contemporary Art, UiB. Through an open call, MFA students are invited to submit proposals for an exhibition to be realised at Hordaland Kunstsenter. Guest jury-member this year was artist, KMD alumni and former MA Week exhibitor Sara Larsen Stiansen.
Daniela Ramos Arias is the curator of the exhibition.
Thanks to Nikolay Tysse Øberg for loaning out the bench made of cargo straps and ash (2022), placed in the main gallery.
