2012 Catalogue - the churchie national emerging art prize

Christopher Hanrahan
b. 1978, Mudgee, NSW
Christopher Hanrahan makes sculptures out
of a whole lot of nothing: holes, light, empty
vessels, transparent containers, crudely built
structures that parade their rudimentary
construction and purloined texts that allude to
stillness, emptiness and the impossible pursuit
of perfection. 1
In this work, Hanrahan alludes to labour
problems within museums, and more broadly,
the art world as an unregulated industry. His
metal structures appear blithe as they stand
in for actually, quite serious, protestatory
action. Against a backdrop of delicate, finely
printed silk, Hanrahan presents purloined
union text (often the domain of male-centric
language) alongside a photocopied page from
an antiquities catalogue. The notion of value is
forced into a conversation with structures that
are often less valued, whether in the distinction
between high and low art, between aesthetics
and industry and the broken or not useful.
at Meadowbank College of TAFE, Sydney and
in 2003 completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts
with Honours from the Sydney College of the
Arts, University of Sydney. He has participated
in numerous exhibitions including MCR (with
Marley Dawson), Museum of Old and New Art,
Hobart (2011); Creation Science, Gertrude
Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne (2010);
New Acquisitions, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney (2009); ECR (with Marley Dawson),
Performance Space, Sydney (2008); MAN,
Penrith Regional Art Gallery, Sydney (2008);
Looking Out, Macquarie University Art Gallery,
Sydney (2008); Living on Luck (with Nigel
Milsom), NAS Gallery, Sydney (2007); Helen
Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship, Artspace,
Sydney 2004. Christopher has also supported
the Parramatta Eels for 30 years.
— Noami Evans
[1] Christopher Hanrahan, artist statement, 2012
Christopher Hanrahan completed an Advanced
Diploma of Fine Arts, majoring in Photomedia
46 | the churchie national emerging art exhibition