Home Artist Profiles Exhibition About Contact

Cultural Diplomacy
15/09/10 - 10/10/10

Don't worry, be happy
18/08/10 - 12/09/10

Anarchy in Avondale
21/07/10 - 14/08/10

Beneath the Blue
23/06/10 - 18/07/10

Duck!
25/05/10 - 19/06/10

The House of Lentigo
28/04/10 - 22/05/10

Stupid Studid Stupid Stupid Stupid Daddy
31/03/10 - 24/04/10

Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious
03/03/10 - 27/03/10

Dark Matter Blue Noise
03/02/10 - 27/02/10

View All Exhibitions

Click on an exhibition to view our current and past exhibitions. For enquires about exhibitions please
click here.

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi in Vivian Street

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi

Thursday 29 December - 30 January

Megan says about her installation: "I define myself as a sculptor, and I usually employ the technique of crochet. It is the medium I find most appropriate in conveying and articulating my concepts. Within my artwork there is a "fusion between form and meaning...which gives it a particular angle on more general issues pertaining to gender, to the domestic sphere, to religion, to cross-cultural interactions and to art and art history itself" (Edward Hanfling, p. 2, unpublished 1st draft of artcile about Megan Hansen-Knarhoi, 2005). I am also interested in the cross-over between domestic and ecclesiastic ritual, more often than not extremely obsessive, often to the point of ridiculousness and meaninglessness.
The coat hanger installations represent all these ideas. Women spent money, love, care and time creating beautiful, intricate covers for coat hangers. Some are knitted, some crocheted, macramed, sewn, embroidered, laced, beaded, padded, scented and ribboned. Some have been made with the material used to make wedding dresses and bridesmaid dresses, which these items are then hung upon. All these coat hangers then have something hung upon them and they are put in a dark wardrobe where they cannot be seen, where no one ever sees them.
Included in my collection are dirtied, faded, rotting, ripped and price tagged hangers. I find it astonishing that the monetary value attributed to these objects is minimal, when someone made it with so much love and care. To me, they are priceless. When I hang all these coat-hangers together, they take on a skeletal quality. They remind me of a whole heap of old bones that someone has forgotten. They were kept in someones wardrobe, hidden away in the dark. So they also have a secretive quality, like the old saying, "skeletons in the closet"."


Untitled installation at MNG