Hannah Buechler Finds Beauty in Disappearing Materials

Bio: Hannah Buechler’s painting, beadwork, and textile art are united by a maximalist approach wherein the gradual accretion of paint, fabric, metals, and plastics creates intensely tactile collages. Informed by the mark-making of Impressionist painters, she creates rich, deep textures out of small, repetitive gestures, exploring how simplicity can blossom into complexity. The resultant artworks obscure their commonplace components with a sheen of surrealism, distorting the viewer’s sense of scale and medium. She builds her recent works from an unlikely combination of Rainbow Loom bands, wool, and felt—materials whose everyday associations begin to disappear as soon as they accumulate.

Title of work: Borderlines

Where to see it: Lucas Theatre For the Arts in Savannah, Georgia.

Three words to describe this work: Repetition, rhythmic, and terrain.

What was on your mind at the time: Vanderpump Rules. I was binge watching the show at the time and felt like I was living in their world.

An interesting feature that’s not immediately noticeable: Creating something like a border around the entire piece took more time than you can imagine, and felt almost like creating a puzzle while connecting the outside pieces together first. The piece felt contained in a way, not just the final product but creating it too.

How the work reflects your practice as a whole: I think Borderlines like all of my work revels in accumulation. At a distance the surface appears more like what one might envision as a traditional painting, but when you look more closely it reveals a highly meticulous and physical process made from hundreds of repeated gestures.

One song that captures the work’s essence: “Borderlines” by Tame Impala.