Artist Name: Hannah Warry-Smith
Title: Between Sea and Sky (Tikkun Olam)
Medium: Digital and film photography (35mm) & text
Year: 2020
Artist Statement:
I wanted to use this opportunity to explore the connection, or rather disconnection, of digital photography as a medium. While it is a medium I use often and have affection for, I would argue it is so much more disconnected from the act of making than painting, or sculpture, or even film photography. In this piece I have used photography both analog and digital, as well as text, to reflect on that disconnection, and how it resembles the disconnection we feel from our world. Between Sea and Sky is meant to be read from right to left, in reference to how Hebrew lettering is read. My Judaism, while much more cultural than religious in practice, is important to me and my work as an artist, and my place in the world in general. While thinking about this piece the last two months, my mind has kept returning to the idea of Tikkun Olam. Tikkun Olam is a concept in Judaism that roughly translates to ‘repair the world’. This ideal is more than a timely reminder or a value we need in this anthropocene age. It is this seed of hope and of change, it is longing for home, for the sea, and the sky.