The sculptural works of Hannah Meijer reveal a world full of contrast. Fascinated by working with textile, Meijer subverts its traditional character and gives it strength by positioning it alongside something else entirely. By using the soft qualities of her materials, such as wools, cotton, and other fabrics, next to hard materials such as plastics, tiles, and glassware, Meijer draws out their sensible and symbolic meanings: intuitive and analytic, feminine and masculine, free and repressed, artistic and scientific, mind and matter.
By turning her works into spatial installations that mimic a non-functional laboratory, her materials start doing the work. Consciously encapsulating textile with scientific materials evokes a sense of repression that reveals more about the qualities of the materials present, while she enables the spectator to engage with them in a sensory way. As such, Meijer’s works challenge us to ponder on the relationships between the instinctive and the straightforward, craft and industry, art and science, and ultimately also nature and culture.

Text by: Menno Vuister