Sandra Hansen, MFA
ARTNOMAD
Sandra Hansen created an undersea world with pure, sustainable handmade paper and repurposed plastic bags. Paper and plastics are the natural and the unnatural, the life giver and the life destroyer, the dichotomy of life and death. Often the two are mixed like microscopic plastic in our drinking water. Hansen’s art is about life or death and our love of plastic.
As the environmental crisis grows larger so does Hansen’s art. Her new installation is an undersea universe with paper sea creatures wearing ropes and fishing nets like scarves and capes casually draped around their shoulders. Her largest piece is a life-sized humpback paper whale that hangs from the ceiling. Fishing nets made from plastic bags cascade from the ceiling and walls. A paper dolphin and a paper sea turtle glide through the underwater world. Translucent plastic bags are repurposed into jelly fish.
The world resonates with plastics and can no longer imagine life without them. Every sea, lake and water mass has a gyre of plastics, according to Marcus Eriksen, co-founder of 5 Gyres. “The gyres we study account for about 25 percent of the planet’s surface, and they draw pollution from all over the world... It would be a waste of time and money to try to clean up all the plastic in the gyres, identifying and reducing that pollution at its sources upstream is the only way to reduce it.” Plastics are in the drinking water, placentas, and babies. We are almost unable to buy clothes and vegetables without plastics. The health care system uses plastics for medicines, IV tubing, syringes, sterilized packaging, and many other things. Houses are encased in plastic vinyl siding. Our transportation is full of plastic in the seating, bumpers, and dashboards. This is the exquisite pollution that we love.
International, Environmental Papermaker
227 W. 19th Street, Holland, MI 49423 cell 1 423 276-0065 artnomad@sandrahansen.com
| Education | ||||
MFA. 2016. Kendall College of Art and Design. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Painting 2024. 3 days learning from master papermakers in Ogawa, Japan | ||
Gallery Representation http://www.wzzm13.com/video/1128740302001/0/ Art-Prize-Emmett-Till/htm 11/23/09 Jagran Josh: Your Guide to Success. Hindi newspaper Banaras, India 2024. 2 day papermaking workshop at International Society of Experimental Artists, Grand Haven Michigan 2022 2 day papermaking workshop at International Society of Experimental Artists, St Alberts, Canada 2019-20 Papermaking and Encaustic Classes at Academy of Art and Design, Grand Rapids, MI 2019. 3 Day papermaking workshop at Three Shadows Residency, Beijing, China. | ||
After being a painter for many years, I became a papermaker. I loved the magic of creating super thin, translucent, paper from leaves and bark. Paper can be made in a completely environmentally sound manner. It is also absolutely gorgeous. Its rich texture; its delicate gauzy effect, and its versatility is mixed media art is exhilarating. The horrendous problems of pollution are instantly apparent through the dichotomy of the natural and artificial materials being mixed together; such as by putting plastic inclusions into the pulp.
Curriculum Vitae