HANNAH ROWAN - Chrysalis, 2021, Galerie Sébastien Bertrand

The Chrysalis, a crystal dissolving into liquid, a being suspended between two forms, neither one nor the other, catalysed transformation.

Water, continually returning and becoming, dispersing, collecting, channelling, moving from intimate raindrops to vast oceans, holding ancient frozen knowledge, melting into tides of erosion and rebirth.

Glass vessels suspended from the gallery ceiling cocoon melting ice. Inspired by porous aquatic creatures, glacial ice and the notion of the butterfly chrysalis as a moment of material transformation and becoming. Exploring the inverse properties of molten glass that cools to form an amorphous solid and ice that melts to form a liquid, these vessels embody flowing states of matter. As the ice melts, beads of condensation form on the surface of the glass and fall into a copper puddle; water saturates salt crystals and congeals, evaporates and begins the cycle anew.

Hannah Rowan’s sculptures evoke fragility, transience, transformation and loss in relation to bodies of water and wider ecological and geological systems. Using materials that trace the passing of time to transmute into other forms, blurring boundaries between phases of matter, the sculptures will evolve throughout the exhibition, merging the tangibility of sculpture with the ephemerality of melting ice.

These sculptures emerge from Rowan’s time documenting melting glaciers in the Arctic and continue her exploration of working with materials that embody flowing states; melting ice, molten glass, crystallising salt and oxidising copper. The traces of water are present in the evolving and shifting materials used, allowing for the vibrancy of their matter to animate the passing of time across their surface.