Hannah Ireland’s work seeks to consider how relationships between the psyche, performativity and theatre align. She is guided by sociologist Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, when considering reality melded through a regulation of social action and systems. A theatrical reality. An assemblage of fragmented information, these paintings echo the perplexing nature of identity. Clothed in a variation of marks that warp, map, and construct each figure: each mark seeks rest upon a surface that resists a harmonic relationship. Painted directly onto a glass surface, the index of each painting is viewed in reverse when flipped, revealing the finished side. The process causes for initial marks to remain present over the last. Her paintings reflect the act of drawing from the perspective of having a body rather than that of observing one. Materialising the emotional and performative: relationships between the psyche, social and theatrical space unfold.

For I know I exist. But is my reality perceived in the same way as it is for those who sit next to me on a bus? Probably not. -Diary entry, date unknown.

Hannah Ireland is currently in her final year at The University of Auckland studying towards Bachelor of Fine Arts and Psychology (BFA/BA(hons)) degree. Recent exhibitions include SAW-SEE_SEE_SAW (2020), Martin was always the class clown (2019), I'm so bad with names (2019).