Glenview, IL
Ann Black (top)
$250
House of Cards (bottom)
$200
karen@karenhanmer.com
www.karenhanmer.com
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My sculptural books and installations fragment and layer content to mirror the experience of personal and cultural memory. The work often has a playful presentation, taking the form of puzzles, maps. games, or decks of cards. Many include text, often archival, usually first person accounts. The pieces are made to be handled. The intimate scale and the gestures of exploration required to travel through a piece evoke the experience of looking through an album, a diary, or the belongings of a loved one.
The Mementos series explores how memory affects our daily lives and how memories of an individual can evoke memory in the collective. Each book is a collection of memories, mementos and family stories that recapture the feeling of experiences or relationships.
A number of works address cultural icons: Mona Lisa and Poker dogs, Elvis, sport utility vehicles, Jackie Kennedy and the crying eagle atop the American flag. The structures of House of Cards and The House That George Built reference children’s toys, exacerbating the horror of the administration’s blunders and evil-doings since the 2001 inauguration.Artist Biography
Chicago book and installation artist Karen Hanmer exhibits widely, and her work is included in collections ranging from Yale University and Tate Britain to Graceland. She is Exhibitions Chair for the Guild of Book Workers, and serves on the editorial board of The Bonefolder.
All images and text copyright the artist. All rights reserved.
