Hannah Stageman
Hannah Stageman is an artist based in Colchester, north-east Essex. She gained a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Colchester School of Art in 2011 and an MA in Art History and Theory from the University of Essex in 2014, supported by a Drake-Lewis Scholarship. She held a studio at Cuckoo Farm Studios in Colchester for 10 years. Her exhibitions include "FOR FOLK SAKE" at The Cut, Halesworth and "Scrubland" at Butley Mill Studios (2024); "Transient" at Cuckoo Farm Studios and "Drawing Open" at No Format Gallery, Deptford (2023); and "FOR SUFFOLK SAKE" at The Art Station, Saxmundham. In 2018 she undertook an Arts Territory Exchange with the Alaska-based artist Katie Ione Craney, and in 2015 held an Essex Network of Artist Studios residency in Epping Forest. She received a Firstsite Collectors Group bursary in 2017. Alongside her own practice she has curated exhibitions including "Drawn Out" (2017), "Anonymous: The April Centre" (2013), "Afterall" (2013) and, as co-curator, "Myriad" at Candid Arts Trust, London (2011).
Artist Statement
I draw upon the history of landscape, looking at nature as culture and the perceived divide between them, using drawing to help me explore nature, the natural sciences and social history. I am interested in the idea of the index, the trace, a physical connection between itself and an object, or in this case myself to my environment. A line on paper or in the land, a record of experience. My drawing practice has therefore evolved to encompass line drawing, printmaking, photography, installation, and land art. I am increasingly finding myself drawn to everyday or overlooked interactions we make with the natural world, as well as the everyday affect the natural world has on our lives. Place has become increasingly important to me, and the majority of my works are site-specific, in the broadest sense, drawing on a place's history, memory and time.