Review

A review of Hannah Hurrle's Stupid Bitches Everywhere

Skinless Productions Gallery
Kansas City, Missouri
December 1 – 31, 2008

JavaNaut Cafe
Kansas City, Missouri
March, 2009

by Barbara Boynton

Hannah Hurrle, "Mouse," Micron pen, disk label, construction paper, 7 ¼"x 5 ¼", 2008, from "Stupid Bitches Everywhere." Hurrle first showed her work at The Mercy Seat Gallery ("Corporate Handicrafts from Middle America") in Kansas City, Missouri, in April 2008 and, this summer, is working on a collection of jewelry to market on Etsy. She is looking forward to an exhibition at The Base Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2010 and is a regular contributor to Roadkill Magazine. Photo: © Hannah Hurrle

The final exhibition at Skinless Productions Gallery on 18th Street in Kansas City, Missouri, Stupid Bitches Everywhere, was a collection of work by Hannah Hurrle, a relative newcomer to the Kansas City art scene. Made primarily of small drawings, the body of work includes sculpture and collage. Hurrle attended the College of Art and Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she studied illustration and gained an appreciation of theater production. Her background is evident in her fluid drawings, collages, and sculptural works.

As if harkening back to the stylistic attributes of Peter Max, the brevity of Mary Blair, and the macabre playfulness of Edward Gorey, Hurrle’s drawings effortlessly join the qualities of past illustrative movements with a personal edge. Her work also invokes the quirkiness of the characters, their tragic genius, or the importance and glorification of the mundane that can also be found in contemporary films like Amelie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet or the off-beat Wes Anderson's. Blending childlike imagery and not-so-innocent humanity, Hurrle amiably conveys a personal bank of emotions and past events, around which the body of work was built.

Hannah Hurrle, "Collage V," Micron pen*, blue watercolor, black India ink, pressed flower petal, tree seed, twig, collected label, plastic comb, white gesso, printed card stock, (*with drawing of Abe Lincoln's profile by Patrick Rocha Jr.), 5" x 4 1/2", 2008. Photo: © Hannah Hurrle

Hannah Hurrle, "We Think You're Weird," Micron pen and watercolor, 4" x 6 ¼" x 1 ½", 2008. Photo:© Hannah Hurrle

Visually quiet in their deliverance, Hurrle’s tiny works, many around 3 or 4 inches, feature fine-tipped pen and ink, and are impressive in their delicacy. Calligraphic lines loosely form the bodies of tiny human or animal figures, sometimes incomplete —  floating bodies atop scribbled feet. Other characters seemed oblivious to their blurred facial features and intricate, flowery genitals.

Micro-details like these made it necessary to view the drawings at close range, and force an intimacy between the individual viewer and the characters.  The stories revealed through these encounters are common throughout humanity.  Little moments of subtle emotion, “meaningful moments of inspiration,” as Hurrle calls them, are preserved in the tiny wonders.

Interpretation of Stupid Bitches Everywhere is largely up to the viewer, despite the illustrative talents of the artist. Some pieces were made purposely vague: many have curious details, such as a signature-like placement of glitter or a juxtaposition of dissimilar images, from which viewers could draw their own conclusions. At first examination, the drawings' content of may seem clear, but they become suddenly disorienting when a confusing detail is noticed. Puzzling sculpture gives nod to private details of the artist’s history, with titles alluding to hidden meanings.

Hannah Hurrle, "Detour," orange and green ink, brown cardboard, gold chain, gold heart gemstone, hot glue, pre-stretched canvas, 4"x 4" x 1 ½", 2008. Photo:© Hannah Hurrle

Hannah Hurrle, installation view of "Stupid Bitches Everywhere," 2008. Photo: © Hannah Hurrle

Stanley Kubrick, for example, a sculpture consisting of a large plastic “gem” surrounded by gold painted chains, was the artist’s representation of the embodiment of the famous director. The sculpture itself was based on a camera angle featured in his film, A Clockwork Orange. Other works contain artifacts from Hurrle’s past, conjuring childhood memories. In the world created by Hannah Hurrle, artworks appear like fractured memories and emotions played out through mini-vignettes of pen and ink, and it is in this world that a title as broad as Stupid Bitches Everywhere, finds gravity. -re-