Using a folkloric lens Hannah Hanski is devoted to highlighting the cultural negotiation between bottom-up (folk-to-commodity) and top-down (institution-to-mashup) storytelling. Having cultivated a visual vocabulary of cartoon and pop culture imagery that resonates with archetypal figures of the collective unconscious, she uses the traditional east coast craft of rug hooking, video, and video games to digest a self-induced barrage of media, creating oracular images. 

Raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Hanski was nursed by a Zenith television and a Latvian grandmother. The sharp contrast between the saturated images on television and the tragic retelling of family trauma launched a lifetime obsession with popular forms of entertainment as a remedy and escape.

She is a Canadian artist who holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University (2017) and a B.A in Folklore & Religious Studies from Memorial University (2009). Her work has been shown at The Hammer Museum, The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Textile Museum of Canada, The Long Beach Museum of Art, The San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver and The Rooms in St. John’s, Newfoundland.