Hannah O'Hare Bennett

When I was younger, I imagined being an archaeologist, hoping to become one of those people who found bits and pieces of the past, and able to reconstruct a story of what happened thousands of years before anyone alive now was born. The idea of using strange physical objects to extract answers to mysteries tantalized me. This essential concept continues to motivate my work as an artist. Most of my creative output has been structured around specific ideas. Lately, I have been interested in the domestication process of wild species of plants and animals into tamer versions more useful to humans. Through the performance of mental archeology that my instalIations provide, I expect and hope my viewers find their own unique interpretations and connections. It is always interesting (and occasionally frustrating) to me that individuals presented with the same information can reach vastly different conclusions about what the truth is. I feel this is especially true in the current political climate. I grapple with external discord through repetition of the same object created with a diverse array of materials: soft sculpture, rock-hard cellulose sculpture, embroidery, watercolor, cut paper, etc. Lately, those images have been a uniquely human feature—a hand with an opposable thumb—and a domestic tool that is a creation and an extension of that feature: a simple comb.