Hannah Halle

2024, Lismore Regional Gallery, Australia.

4,336 overlapping 80 gsm colour A4 photocopies (Laser Prints) on recycled A4 paper applied onto wall. Featuring art works from Holly Ahern, Bronwyn Bancroft, René Bolten, Amanda Bromfield, Daniel Browning, Lisa Carsley Dowall, Jan Davis, Kathryn Dolby, Claudie Frock, Geoffrey Hannah OAM, Lindy Lee AO, Matt O’Brien, Aris Prabawa, Araby Steen, Marian Tubbs, Alan Ussher and Wojak.

Note on project title: ‘Halle’ is a German word applied to a special category of building, frequently used in the term ‘Kunsthalle’ (art space). It describes structures designed and constructed specifically for the hosting of exhibitions – art and trade fairs, symposia and public events such as concerts and recitals. Here the term has been employed to indicate a space for inclusivity and for everybody. Across the duration of the exhibition the Halle will be activated by special events including music and performance.

With 4,336 sheets of A4 paper ritualistically applied to the four walls of the main gallery in the weeks leading up to Lismore Regional Gallery’s reopening, Hannah Halle symbolically references the beloved Hannah Cabinet from the Gallery’s collection, made by local craftsman Geoffery Hannah OAM, that was damaged in the 2022 floods.

By deconstructing, upscaling, and reimagining the Cabinet’s ensemble of richly decorated doors, sliding panels, and drawer faces as voids and “balcony” shelves for the display of artists’ works, and carefully scanning timbers and veneers from the salvaged cabinet to digitally collage them with Escher-like architectural compositions, with window portals opening to story-book blue skies and modern escalators into realms that could lead to anyplace. Additional layers include high-resolution photographs of nearby wilderness, a gesture to remnant material sources that grounds the project to the Northern Rivers.

The illusionistic interior of Hannah Halle includes voids drawn in proportion to sections of the Hannah Cabinet, populated by locals in a celebration of the region’s creative community. Featured artists include Holly Ahern, Bronwyn Bancroft, René Bolten, Amanda Bromfield, Daniel Browning, Lisa Carsley Dowall, Jan Davis, Kathryn Dolby, Claudie Frock, Geoffrey Hannah OAM, Lindy Lee AO, Matt O’Brien, Aris Prabawa, Araby Steen, Marian Tubbs, Alan Ussher and Wojak.