Lecture2, Frances Hansen

Frances Hansen was my life drawing class’ lecturer in the first semester of year one. I only had her for 6 classes. After today’s lecture Im getting to know more about her. She is not only good at drawing but also she is a collector. Use of the materials are very important in Frances’ practice. She gathers things from her surroundings such as her house and condition and environment. She collects images around her house and the recycle stuffs such as the packaging from $2 shop or from the daily use like milk bottles, cleansing product etc. She photographed them and documented into her visual diary. She also will make a list next to them to help her thinking going and plan for her next practice work.

The images she used have her personal meaning in her practice. She responds to the things around her. Most of her practice are related to her family history, childhood memories and the things that influence her when she was moving to Auckland. She is also interested in transforming things into something eles. So she starts to make work from her house conditions and living space and start to make silhouettes of the objects such as the cleansing products. The mystery of the missing objects are really interested her. Like she is playing a little game with us. What is the object of that silhouette? What is the missing object in the packaging?

The final necklace I made in object study was made by the things I’v collected from my childhood. That were the things I used or very like when I was a little. Those small objects have personal meanings for me like the little colorful buttons from my old cloths and the hair clips ect. I also used a yellow and red riband to link the objects together. I used yellow and red riband because Im a chinese and I wanted it to refer to my country’s flag. Also, thoes two colors really works together. Red color is also a meaning of good luck and love. I think this work of mine is quite similar to Frances’ work. We collect things we are interested and put it into our work which also have personal meaning. Use of the material is important for an artist. In my opinion, the materials which the artist had used can show off the style of their art work.