Hannah Tan

Sound Within a Plant, 2017

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This is a series of works on paper and linen using imaging and drawing processes to look at the inner world of plants through invisible and inaudible wavelength. It is a result of collaboration with a medical professional in attempt to access the inside of plants using ultrasound technology. Ultrasound imaging machine was used to scan the plants and gave the unheard plants “a voice”. The ultrasound waves travelled through the plants and reflected back a complex visual inner world of plants where boundaries of exteriority and interiority were blurred, a world where both areas of light and shadows could be found in each other. With this visual information, I went on to create a series of ink drawings exploring the notion of perception, issues of (in)visibility and the indeterminacy of forms, edges and spaces through the drawing and thinking processes. The works culminated in Silent Sound, 2017, where there was no clear boundary of any image to be perceived at all except in the viewers' minds. Viewers’ perception of this work changed too when viewed from a far distance to near proximity.