Fiona Hall - Layers of Meaning in Materials

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Hall incorporates humour into some of her artworks. Particularly her ‘Paradisis terristris’ series. The fact she provided a parodic twist on such a confronting topic makes it less affront to the audience. Paradisis terrestris is a series that consists of human genitalia attached to plant life. The materials used to create this artwork were tin sheets of metal and sardine cans. The use of the sardine cans is to subtly represent modern culture as well as simple human(genitalia) lifestyles and too relate it to nature(the plants). Hall chose to use sardine cans specifically, to symbolise consumerism. Which is a major theme in this particular series. She wanted to display the mass consumption of natural products in not only the food industry but in general. Hall wants the audience to make the connection between humans and nature, and to make it obvious that we are inevitably nature itself, and are eventually going to have nothing pure in the world at the rate of mass production in organic products(palm oil, meats, vegetation). The way the plants and human anatomy form together in this artwork are important, as it appears as if plants and humanity are growing through each other. Sending a message that humans and nature should learn to co-exist instead of wiping one out for purposes of their own. Tender was a sculptural collection created by Hall in 2003-2005. It consists of bird nests, in a variety of shapes and sizes, hanging down from a glass cabinet. Similar to that of an exhibits in a museum. However the birds’ nests are made out of American one dollar notes. Using the American dollar note as a material for the birds’ nests shows the fact that-as the worlds most desired currency-humans are very desperate for money; like birds scavenging for material to create their nests. It shows how dependent on money humans are to shelter them, like a nest protecting a

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