Lake George’s Courthouse Gallery Presents a Solo Exhibition by Hanna Washburn: Jog Your Memory

This is a multi-weekend event through November 11, 2023. Check the Lake George Arts Project website for more information on current dates and times.

Hanna Washburn builds sculptures from recycled clothing and textiles, furniture, household items, and other materials that have former utilities and associations. She sews by hand and works intuitively, allowing the forms to grow organically into complex aggregates of color, pattern, and texture.

Photo courtesy Lake George Arts Project.

The Courthouse Gallery curator explains that Washburn’s exhibit, "Jog your Memory," is about how colors, patterns, forms, and gestures can trigger memories. These connections may be strong and vivid or hazy and fragmented. Washburn uses everyday materials to create sculptures that have distinct personalities. Sometimes, she incorporates objects or materials from her past, or if she no longer has access to them, she recreates the patterns or items from memory.

“Jog Your Memory” is a significant exhibition for Washburn as it is the first time she showcases several hanging sculptures together. This is a relatively new aspect of her practice.

The hanging sculptures represent suspended items commonly found in homes, such as hanging planters, light fixtures, and chandeliers. Washburn says she drew inspiration from her great-grandmother's front porch, which she remembers as being sunlit and adorned with various hanging objects like flowers, bird cages, and other intriguing things.

Furthermore, Washburn's hanging sculptures serve a dual purpose as they occupy the space between the floor, wall, and ceiling, interrupting the exhibition and your thoughts. Washburn likens them to the way a memory can suddenly stop you in your tracks.

Washburn’s current exhibition encourages viewers to form personal associations with the materials and postures in her multi-layered creations. The materials used to create the compound forms are from Washburn's life and the lives of her friends and family.

She sews the pieces by hand and works intuitively, allowing the forms to develop organically into complex combinations of color, pattern, and texture. The colorful patterned surfaces are shaped to resemble bodies or body parts, which droop, gesture, and hold space while they seem to be growing and changing.

The exhibit is on display until November 11, 2023.

 

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