Peter Hannaford Politic/Pasquinade July 5 - Aug 2 2014, Exhibition opening event; Saturday July 5th 2-4pm
Within Hannaford’s work lies the struggle of the individual trying to find a way to navigate the complexity of their internal and external worlds – complex elements lampooned and loved in equal measure. His works speak of the wisdom of Snoopy – ‘to know me is to love me’. For knowing this world, knowing human antics, knowing the troubled responses to this enveloping chaos makes it hard not to pity and hard not to have a tincture of compassion for the trial by ordeal that is each of our lives.
Founded in deep personal experience, Hannaford’s work knows this world; it resonates with the darkness lying within each of us as we struggle to face our conflicting claims and realities in life. To Hannaford this is not subject matter, but life matter, impossible to jettison. That life matters is instilled in the works, despite the humourous love bestowed upon each of his figures. So often wooden, they each carry within them pathos, deeply ingrained with a complex knowing. Their cartoonesque qualities invite abstracted reflection upon our tragically comical selves, caught within our own projections. It is here that the disambiguated ‘Other’, the one that threatens our fragile notions of existence, resides. It is here that we can consider our own habitual merry-go-round.
Dr Caitlin Street
Will U be going away? 2013 timber, casting resin, letraset, music box 66 x 37 x 18 cm
What goes around comes around 2012 timber, plastic, casting resin, metal 91 x 90 cm
Where to now? 2008 timber, plastic, metal 52 x 68 x 20 cm
High anxiety 1991(2013 upgrade) timber, acid free card, plastic 76 x 30 x 18 cm
Ego-self extinction 2013 oil on canvas paper, foam board 40 x 40 cm
Convict transportation revisited 2008 oil on linen canvas 46 x 71 cm
Renewal 2012 enamel and oil paint, photo montage, casting resin 62 x 77 cm