To Hold an Ocean

2023
Cast aluminium and chain
variable dimensions

Having grown up in a seaside town in the UK, Hannah Rowan has had a longtime fascination with water and its role in connecting humans to earth. The works Undersea (2023) and To Hold an Ocean (2023) materialises Rowan’s research around marine ecosystems and the intertidal zone, looking at notions of time and memory in water, and the fragility and resilience of aquatic lifeforms. Comfortably fitting into the palm of your hand, oyster shells have been used to encapsulate her research as they hold “atmospheric memories” carried through water encoding time and events in calcite layers, like the strata in rocks. They also improve water quality, increase marine biodiversity, and protect shorelines from flood surges, playing an important part in their self-regulation.

Hannah Rowan (b. 1990, Brighton, UK) lives and works between Brighton, UK and Brooklyn, USA. She holds an MA in Sculpture from Royal College of Art, London, UK and a BA in Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, London, UK. She has exhibited internationally at galleries including: Banff Centre for Arts, Alberta, CA; Seventeen Gallery, London, UK; Arcadia Missa Gallery, London, UK; Galerie Sebastien Bertrand, Geneve, CH; Thameside Studios, London, UK; Arusha Gallery, Bruton, UK; C+N CANEPANERI, Milan, IT; Galerie Sébastien Bertrand, Geneva, CH; Belo Campo, Lisbon, Portugal; Assembly Point Gallery, London, UK; White Crypt, London, UK; Well Projects, Margate, UK; Andrew Reed, New York, USA; Annely Juda Fine Art, London, UK; HIAP Gallery Augusta, Helsinki, Finland; Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer 7th Edition, UK; Science Museum Trento, IT; Spazio Musa, Turin, IT; Easy Day Institute, New York, US; Wuhan Biennale, Qintai Art Museum, CA.