Join us for an exceptional evening with Hannah Ranger, DARC’s Expanded Practice artist in residence, as she explores how new technology can enhance the visceral experience of felted artwork. Hannah will share insights from her residency and discuss the evolution of her project.
About the Talk:
As a textile artist who relies heavily on the sensorial experience evoked by showcasing the intrigue of natural fibres, I am drawn to the potential of amplifying the visceral experience of my work by engaging with the extraordinary capacity of new technology. Audiences have often remarked that they would like to experience being inside the felted work. Mediating between physical space and the individual, new technology and extended reality practices are the perfect tools for immersing the viewer within the work and becoming an integral influence of the experience.
I am expanding my creative world as I work with filmmakers, sound artists, digital artists and technicians and all the specialized equipment and devices that come along with that. This larger creative circle offers challenges that allow me to move out of my comfort zone, expand the reach of my work, and allow the other technologies to influence and enhance my expression.
This is the beginning of a trajectory that opens up different opportunities for how and where I exhibit my work as I continue to reach out across practices to discover ever more relevant ways to highlight the most elegant, empowering and sustainable ways that digital technology can enhance our experiences.
About Hannah Ranger:
Hannah Ranger is a visual artist, specializing in felt making, whose work is rooted in the expressive, and relational quality of natural fibres.
Hannah maintains a studio in rural Western Quebec, where she is continually evolving work that is based on the natural patterns that emerge in our environment, with a particular interest in macro and micro imagery, and drawing parallels between the environment and biology.
Born and raised between rural Quebec and Southwestern Ontario, Hannah was exposed to artmaking at an early age, pursuing informal training in many mediums. The discovery of felt making in 2009 led to a full-time practice and participation in many exhibits, symposiums and collaborations. Her work won the ArtEast Mosaic Juror’s choice award and has been supported by le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
