My Artist Statement
Hannah Clegg is a Dublin-based artist, Art educator, and creative researcher whose practice explores personal connection, visual storytelling, and experimentation through both lens-based and mixed-media processes. Originally working primarily through photography, her practice has expanded through an interest in material exploration, process-led making, and the relationship between image, emotion, and narrative.
Her work is shaped by observation, memory, and human experience, often developing organically through experimentation with imagery, composition, texture, and form. Moving between photography, print, mixed media, and visual experimentation, she approaches making as an evolving and reflective process, valuing exploration and intuition as much as the final outcome.
Alongside her artistic practice, her work as an educator and researcher continues to influence her creative approach, particularly through interests in collaboration, communication, and the ways visual art can support expression, connection, and engagement.
Showcasing Key projects
My work reflects a journey of personal exploration and connection, expressed through various mediums:
'Love' collection
Philautia
Philautia, the Greek word for self-love, explores the quiet and often complex relationship we hold with ourselves. Through the image of a figure gradually immersing herself within her own waters, the work reflects a process of self-acceptance, introspection, and emotional stillness. The act of “filling one’s own cup” becomes symbolic of learning to nurture and reconnect with oneself through patience, solitude, and reflection.
The work considers self-love not as vanity, but as an intimate and necessary act of understanding one’s own thoughts, emotions, and inner world. Water functions as both a physical and emotional space within the piece, representing calmness, vulnerability, and personal transformation.
Philia,
Philia, the Greek word for deep and affectionate friendship, explores the enduring connections formed through trust, care, and shared experience. The image depicts two interconnected hands bound together through stretched red thread, symbolising the invisible yet lasting bonds that exist between people.
The overlapping strings reflect the ways lives intertwine over time, even as individuals move through different paths and experiences, traces of connection remain. The work views friendship as a form of chosen family; rooted in support, mutual understanding, and presence without expectation. Through symbolism and composition, the piece explores themes of community, interconnection, and the emotional strength found within human relationships.
'Connection' collection
Created during my Erasmus period in Hamburg, Germany, the Connection Collection explores themes of belonging, human connection, and personal transition within unfamiliar environments. Combining landscape imagery with portraiture, the collection reflects my experience of navigating new places, encounters, and relationships while adapting to life abroad.
The work captures moments of observation, intimacy, and emotional connection, documenting both the physical surroundings and the interpersonal relationships formed throughout the experience. Through photography, the collection considers how people, places, and shared experiences shape our sense of identity and connection within new environments.
Finding your feet
Finding Your Feet reflects the uncertainty and vulnerability that can come with entering unfamiliar environments and forming new connections. The work combines the image of a woman walking along a rocky shoreline with the reflection of a tree layered across the composition, creating a visual metaphor for transition, growth, and emotional navigation.
The piece explores the experience of moving to a new place and the unpredictability that comes with meeting new people and adapting to unfamiliar surroundings. Much like wading through unclear waters without knowing whether the ground beneath you is stable or uncertain, the work reflects the feeling of stepping beyond comfort and into the unknown. Through this uncertainty, the piece considers how new environments and relationships can gradually shape identity, perspective, and personal growth.
Home away from Home
Home Away From Home reflects building familiarity and comfort within a new environment. While home is often connected to the places we grow up in, the work considers how new spaces can also become meaningful through lived experience, routine, and human connection.
Through the relationships formed and the places encountered over time, the unfamiliar slowly becomes personal. The piece explores this quiet shift — how a temporary place can begin to hold the same sense of comfort, attachment, and belonging as the place once left behind.
Evolution of my art
My artistic practice has evolved significantly over time. While I was initially primarily a lens-based artist working through photography and visual imagery, I have since expanded my creative practice through experimentation with a wider range of mediums and processes.
Exploring mixed media, print, construction, and hands-on making has allowed me to develop greater depth within my work, both inside and outside the classroom. Through this process, I have become increasingly interested in experimentation, material exploration, and the ways different mediums can shape storytelling, emotion, and personal connection within creative practice.