Pursuing a response to her previous show, Bundle, HANNA PETTYJOHN produced something bearing more resemblance to a reaction.  In The Glass Between Us, her second show in 2013, the paintings are consistent in format and content only -- large portraits complemented by still life renderings of various articles of clothing -- the tone and hues, however, stand in pronounced contrast.  All of the warmth and clutter of superfluous sheets and blankets in Bundle replaced by the pragmatism of a striped collared shirt and gray slacks.  Faces unbundled for a warmer climate stare indecipherably askew, further signifying the sea change.  To bundle is to bring together or join, while the title of this show denotes an experience of separation.

In The American Sweet, the subjects of PETTYJOHN’S portraits wore dust masks.  In Bundle, they were adorned with random fabrics.  Although barren of these impediments, The Glass Between Us does not expose the faces to the full glare of clarity.  Rather, they are obfuscated by indiscriminate patches of haziness, like mist on the aforementioned glass.  Here, PETTYJOHN reveals another possible distinction from the tactile physicality of her previous show.  Bundle portrays the external experience of touch and feel, yet these paintings, like a steam-blurred mirror after a particularly hot shower, reflect not only their obvious contents but one’s imperfect perception of them.  In this light, The Glass Between Us becomes an almost voyeuristic depiction of limitations and a constant barrier so close that even one’s own breath fogs its surface.

Words by Matt Jones

I’ve found that layers are fun to play with; layers of paint render backgrounds, foregrounds, then skin, then clothing, then mist, to create texture that is both actual and implied. I find that this is a priority; one that matters more than the subjects rendered. Of course I’ve always had a personal interest in unusual faces and blank expressions and human personalities, but it is all just paint.

The colours that exist in temperate climates are a point of interest, without a doubt. Colour filters that are often edited into a photograph after it is taken exist naturally there, but become displaced and faded in the tropical sun and bright humidity of Manila, their new home. Faded, like a memory that is documented years later. Bundle and The Glass Between Us, which is also called “Unbundled” in my mind, is about the impression of cold, illustrated somehow through the pale light or through bundles of clothing shed in a careless pile on the floor, or the impression of warmth, implied by bundles of drapery and textures wrapped tightly around flushed pink, purple, or orange faces. I also hope it is about the peace in the flatness of a foreign place, and more importantly, a longing for home.

Hanna Pettyjohn
The Glass Between Us
April 2013

Through early works in wax and clay, Hanna Pettyjohn affirmed a lasting transfixion with the tangible and immediate. Forms that carry a moment’s touch tell the story of themselves. In layering oil on canvas, she maintains a textural basis to her subject matter, with no context of history or society to obstruct the personal aspect of her works.