between-ness – Travelling Exhibition (TREX)

How do you turn objects into art? How do you create a dynamic composition? What does negative space mean? What new meaning comes from the purposeful arrangement of objects?

Hanna Petkau is an emerging artist from Calgary, Alberta that explores these questions in her art practice. Originally from British Columbia, her childhood was spent walking the coastal shoreline, collecting found objects. This experience had an immense impact on her artistic practice, influencing her aesthetic, processes and concepts. Over the last two years she has been creating a series of wall sculptures that incorporate found/natural and manufactured materials such as driftwood, woven wire, clay, fibers, seeds and rope. Petkau finds a balance between transformation and familiarity, creating an intricately fabricated body of work that intersects both the natural and manufactured world. She explains,

“I reserve an intentional ambiguity to the origin and intent of my objects. The collection is comprised of objects both found, transformed and constructed that realize the collaboration between human and natural actions.”.

This exhibition, between-ness, was curated by Xanthe Isbister, Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, as part of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition program (TREX).

A big thank you to the TREX NW Program Sponsor KMSC Law!