Hannah Raisin’s video installation ‘Blowhole’ forms a rippling sheath over the gallery. Intermittent ruptures reveal a creature under the water. The mouth and face push through the water’s surface, playfully inhabiting the space between animal blowhole and the human raspberry. Splashing water interacts with an industrial rumble, further blurring these nature culture binaries. Using photography, video, installation and performance Raisin’s practice engages situated bodily actions as a way to examine and interrupt projected cultural ideals. These concern forms and functions of the body, utilising performance as a way to explore and transcend social codes.
Biography Raisin completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2012. She has exhibited in numerous group and solo exhibitions both locally and nationally. Notable exhibitions include Backflip: Humour and Feminism in Contemporary Art, Margaret Lawrence Gallery (2013), RAISIN+WELLS, Gippsland Art Gallery, SALE (2009), The More you Ignore me and The Closer I Get, UQ Museum, QLD (2009). Recent publications include PREVIEW – Backflip: Feminism and humour in Contemporary Art – Laura Castagnini, NAVA quarterly: Women in Art 2013, Torture the Women –Phip Murray Photofile88, Ways of Doing. T&A the F-ing Gaze – Talia Linz, Runway Issue 16, Risk: the limits of laughter and intimacy – Varia Karipoff: Next Wave 2010, RealTime issue #98. In 2012 Raisin received the Rosemary Ricker Award, Shermerdine Art Award, the National Gallery of Victoria’s Women’s Association Award and the Substation Exhibition Award. She was also a finalist in the 2012 Bowness Photography Prize. She is a current member of Arts Victoria’s Youth Arts Reference Group (YARG), and was founding member Rear View gallery 2008-2010.