Artists statement
Wall Kisser is a kinetic sculpture that is hand-cranked by the viewer. On turning the handle the wall receives the repetitive, kiss-thud, kiss-thud of the leather and velvet hearts which have been padded out with dried lavender and rosemary from the artist's garden (a version of an 18th Century pot pourri recipe commonly used to ward off disease and disguise bad smells). The sculpture's rotating form is loosely based on the design of a vibrator that the artist saw online: an electromechanical wheel of 10 plastic ‘tongues’. This sculpture was part of a body of work entitled Gorgeous, first presented at the inaugural Ellen José Art Award at Bayside Gallery in 2022. Gorgeous was an exhibition that imagined the physical gallery (walls, floor space), as if an abstract version of a lover’s body.
Gartside explains, "I am curious about the potential connections between a viewer and an artwork... What could we ask of viewers beyond their attention, and as artists, what can we offer? What is possible when both artwork and viewer have skin in the game? In this work I am teasing out possibilities for eliciting surprise, delight, humour through art, and offering my gratitude for the 'lover' type relationship that I have with my art practice."
Artist Bio
Hannah Gartside works across kinetic sculpture, installation and quilt-making. Characteristically sensual and poetic, her works transform and in some cases animate, found fabrics and clothing and ephemera to articulate experiences and sensations of longing, tenderness, care, desire and fury.
Her solo presentation Bunnies in Love, Lust and Longing at Melbourne Art Fair (February, 2025), received the Richard Parker Award. Recent commissions include Forest Summons (for Lilith) at the Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria for Melbourne Now, 2023, and Loie, Lilith, Sarah, Pixie and Artemisia for Primavera 2021: Young Australian Artists at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
In 2024, Gartside was a recipient of an Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, from the Samstag Museum, University of South Australia. She will commence an MFA in Europe in late 2025. Her sculpture #19 (Series: Bunnies in Love, Lust and Longing) was the winner of the Woollahra Small Sculpture Award in 2024.
Gartside has undertaken residencies at Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne (2020) and in California at the Varda Artist Residency (2017). Gartside received a Bachelor of Fine Art (Sculpture) Honours from University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts, in 2019, and a BFA (Fashion Design) Honours from Queensland University of Technology in 2010. Prior to her visual art training, Gartside worked as costume-maker and dresser for five years, mainly on productions for Queensland Ballet. Her work is held in the collections of Wangaratta Art Gallery, Wesfarmers, Ararat Gallery TAMA, Darebin City Council, MECCA and Artbank. She is represented by Tolarno Galleries.
