Facing Forward: Hannah Langer
May 2 – May 23 | Opening Reception May 2, 1pm–9pm
COOP is pleased to present Facing Forward by Hannah Langer. Facing Forward confronts the idea of origin, loss, and confusion through paper documentation and hidden ceramic sculptural seeds. The installation is meant to remind viewers that through laying everything out something new can be discovered. Instead of living in fear that embracing what makes us different is what makes us who we are. That through showing that to the world the world often answers back through others connecting with what it means to be missing a part of our story, but not being lost.
Artist Statement
I have found it difficult to come to terms with my identity as a transracial adoptee as I have grown up with a family on the other side of the world. Facing Forward grapples with the feelings of lost history and unknowns surrounding my birth as a child born during China’s One Child Policy. In my practice, I grapple with the feelings of lost history and the unknowns surrounding my birth. I face my origins everyday as my outward appearance suggests a history that I cannot relate to, having spent most of my life on the east coast of the US. I struggle with relating to my past as our roots are the starting point of who we are, and I cannot find where mine begin. This separation from my roots results in a fear that I am not Chinese enough to embrace that aspect of my cultural heritage.
Much of my early life can only be read through the Chinese documentation my parents received when they adopted me. These records provide a historical timeline of what happened to me as a infant, but they are incomplete, perhaps inaccurate, and they can never tell the story of how the infant found on the steps of the Civil Affairs Bureau in Hunan Province, China, developed into the woman that I am now. In my work, I display my own missing history as a way to allow others to relate similar feelings of loss within their own narratives.
Borrowing from nature, my work takes inspiration from seeds flourishing into trees. These images of nature are consistently present within my work as they embody a moment of transformation and, in this, they emphasize how a seed can grow away from the tree that bore it. Through the creation of multiple seeds, it becomes a part of the environment for this installation. Each layer makes it harder to see the individual seeds as they become a part of the collective. The stories of the seeds unfold as you dig deeper and look closely.
More about the Artist
Hannah Jun Langer was born in Anhui, China and raised in Massachusetts after being adopted as a baby. She graduated from the College of Wooster in 2021, receiving a Bachelors of Art majoring in Studio Art and English. While at Wooster, her work was displayed at the Sussel and Mackenzie Galleries. She recently graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Master in Fine Art with a concentration in ceramics. She has completed residency a the Cub Creek Foundation and Watershed Center for Ceramics Arts. Along with this she has received scholarships to participate in a workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Her most recent work has been exhibited at the Dogwood Art region exhibition in Knoxville, Tennessee and Will of the Kiln in New Haven, Connecticut.