Hannah Chalew
2022 Louisiana Fellow and Southern Prize Winner
Southern Prize Winner
Recipient Information
Location
New Orleans, Louisiana
Medium
Mixed Media
Year of Award
2022
Grant or Fellowship
Southern Prize and State Fellowships
Grant Amount
$5,000
Artist Statement
My artwork explores what it means to live in an era of global warming with an uncertain future, and specifically what that means in Southern Louisiana. My practice explores the historical legacies that got us here to help imagine new possibilities for a livable future.
I make work that connects fossil fuel extraction and plastic production to their roots in the white supremacy and capitalism that have fueled the exploitation of people and the landscape from the times of colonization and enslavement. My works draw viewers into an experience that bridges past and present with visions of the future ecosystems that might emerge from our culture’s detritus if we fail to change course. Believing that art has the power to make people feel deeply and to question their perspectives, I use my artwork to reach and engage people on the issue of climate change in an increasingly oversaturated information age.
In art pieces ranging from works on paper to large-scale installations, I bring together unlikely materials in combinations that are often beautiful; they draw viewers in to stay with the work that, on closer inspection, has a deeper burn that implicates them in our collective new realities—challenging them to think critically about their place in this greater network as we co-evolve together. My work creates space to imagine what else could be possible now and beyond; it inspires viewers to think about what individual and collective changes are needed for a just transition to a livable future.
Biography
Hannah Chalew is an artist, educator and environmental activist raised and currently working in New Orleans. Her artwork explores what it means to live in a time of global warming with a collective uncertain future, and specifically what that means for those of us living in Southern Louisiana. Her practice explores the historical legacies that got us here to help imagine new possibilities for a livable future. Since 2018, she has sought to divest her studio practice from fossil fuels as much as possible through the materials she uses: choosing recycled, free, and sustainable materials; by powering her artworks and studio practice with renewable resources like solar power and rain-water harvesting; and by traveling by bike to and from my studio.
She received her BA from Brandeis University in 2009, and her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2016. Chalew has exhibited widely around New Orleans and has shown around the country at the Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO; Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center, Bronx, NY; Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Dieu Donné, New York, NY; Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC, and other venues. Her work is held in the collections of the City of New Orleans and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. She recently received a Monroe Research Fellowship from Tulane University to create ink from fossil fuel pollution in collaboration with fence-line communities in Southern Louisiana.
Embodied_Emissions
Year: 2020
Medium: Iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells on paper
Size (h x w x d): 61” x 92”
Medium continued: made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plasticwaste (“plasticane”)
This drawing contrasts the form of an oak tree growing just outside of the Denkachemical plant in Laplace, Louisiana, which is mirrored below the tree. The imageryblends together in the middle of the composition as the pipes intermingle with the rootsand branches of the tree reflecting how the environment is being affected by thecarcinogenic emissions of this refinery. According to the EPA’s National Air ToxicsAssessment published in 2015, residents near Denka’s plant were determined to havethe highest risk of air pollution-caused cancer in the country, nearly 50 times thenational average. On paper combining plastic with sugarcane, with ink made from oakgalls and shells, this drawing examines how the legacies of exploitation of people andlandscape from the time of colonization and plantations extends into our current
Flotant
Year: 2020
Medium: Metal, sugarcane, disposable plastic waste, soil
Size (h x w x d): 76” x 48” x 34”
Medium continued: living plants, iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells
This sculptural drawing is a living ecosystem that explores what the future of thislandscape might look like if we don’t change course. The paper, made from sugarcaneand plastic, is shaped over a welded structure embedded into a planter also made fromsugarcane and plastic. As Southern Louisiana sinks and sea-levels rise, this sculptureimagines what our entangled biomes might look like down the line if the status quogoes unchanged.
Detail view of Flotant
Year: 2020
Medium: Metal, sugarcane, disposable plastic waste, soil
Size (h x w x d): 76” x 48” x 34”
Medium continued: living plants, iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells
The paper, made from sugarcane and plastic, is shaped over a welded structureembedded into a planter also made from sugarcane and plastic. Pipelines that alternate between metal and paper weave into fantastical configurations in and out of the planterform, and living plants grow around and over these structures, referencing howenmeshed this oil infrastructure is with our landscape and how complicated butnecessary the issue of divestment and shifting to other forms of energy is.
Petroplexus
Year: 2019
Medium: Iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells, on paper
Size (h x w x d): 11’ x 8’ x 2’
Medium continued: made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plasticwaste (“plasticane”) over rebar
This drawing examines the effect of the petrochemical industry on the landscape of Southern Louisiana in the present and into the future. The drawing substrate is made from a combination of sugarcane, the staple chattel slavery crop, and shredded plastic, much of which was refined just upriver In Cancer Alley. These materials connect the legacy of enslavement to the white supremacy and capitalism that persist today.
Detail view of Petroplexus
Year: 2019
Medium: Iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells, on paper
Size (h x w x d): 11’ x 8’ x 2’
Medium continued: made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plasticwaste (“plasticane”) over rebar
Just as the wetlands are decimated by the oil industry, the drawing breaks apart,revealing the welded understructure that doubles as the pipeline infrastructure lyingbeneath our state and coastline. Even as our coast is eroding and sinking and sealevels are rising, petrochemical companies continue to actively exploit our landscapeand poison our communities.
Tremblant
Year: 2021
Medium: Metal, sugarcane, plastic, lime, recycled paint
Size (h x w x d): 72” x 48” x 60”
Medium continued: living plants, soil, paper made from sugarcane combined withshredded disposable plastic waste (“plasticane”), iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells
La prairie tremblante, or trembling prairie, is the local term for the floating marshesendemic to Louisiana; marshes that are not anchored to the soil beneath. Thissculpture is inspired by this natural adaptation to our watery landscape and imagineswhat might become of our built world, specifically the petrochemical infrastructure thatlitters our Southern Louisiana environs when seas rise. This living sculptural drawinghas a watering system built into it, the industrial pipes of fossil fuel facilities now act asconduit to nurture the plants in this new ecosystem.
Detail view of Tremblant"
Year: 2021
Medium: Metal, sugarcane, plastic, lime, recycled paint
Size (h x w x d): 72” x 48” x 60”
Medium continued: living plants, soil, paper made from sugarcane combined withshredded disposable plastic waste (“plasticane”), iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells
La prairie tremblante, or trembling prairie, is the local term for the floating marshesendemic to Louisiana; marshes that are not anchored to the soil beneath. Thissculpture is inspired by this natural adaptation to our watery landscape and imagineswhat might become of our built world, specifically the petrochemical infrastructure thatlitters our Southern Louisiana environs when seas rise.
Entropical_Futures
Year: ongoing
Medium: Metal, wire, sugarcane, plastic waste, paint
Size (h x w x d): 20' x 12' x 20' (variable)
Medium continued: living plants
Entropical Futures is an ongoing installation visioning what future gardens might looklike based on our current societal addiction to fossil fuels and their byproducts. Theinstallation explores the uncertain horizons that face us collectively in the age of theAnthropocene, the geological epoch marked by humans’ effect on our planet—inparticular, in Southern Louisiana where the oil and gas industry is a major part of thestate’s economy. Viewers are invited to explore these future gardens and think abouthow they fit in this greater network. In this image, a dancer is activating the installation.
Detail view of Entropical_Futures
Year: ongoing
Medium: Metal, wire, sugarcane, plastic waste, paint
Size (h x w x d): 20' x 12' x 20' (variable)
Medium continued: living plants
This installation connects contemporary issues like fossil fuel extraction and plasticproduction with the legacies of extraction and exploitation, illustrating their impact onthis landscape over time by drawing viewers into an experience that links past andpresent with future ecosystems that might emerge from our culture’s detritus if we fail tochange course. Long after we have rendered this place uninhabitable for us, our wasteand the “nature” we have tried to tame will remain and continue to commingle,inextricably woven into the ecological mesh of our planet.
Entangled_Afterlives
Year: 2020
Medium: Iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells, paper
Size (h x w x d): 44” x 60” x 12”
Medium continued: made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plasticwaste (“plasticane”), over foam and wood
This drawing compresses temporalities and Louisiana landscapes to examine how thisenvironment has been exploited over time and what the future may hold. The paperitself combines shredded disposable plastic waste with sugarcane, the chattel slaverycrop, to connect current issues like fossil fuel extraction and plastic production to theirroots in the white supremacy and capitalism that has fueled the abuse of people andlandscape from the times of colonization and enslavement. The inks are also sourcedfrom this landscape and link the histories oak trees have seen with the shells of ourfellow creatures, containing the same material as our bones and thus resonating withthe human body.