My recent body of work is primarily influenced by my experience with nyctalopia (congenital stationary night blindness), in tandem with a curiosity towards Freud’s theory of the Uncanny: “that class of the terrifying which leads back to something known to us, once very familiar.” As I become unable to see at night, or in the dark, spaces that were once known to me become alien and indecipherable.
While the majority of my imagery comes from observations of nature and local sites, the paintings also engage with the subjective lens of photography and digital alterations to embodiment. My process involves taking photos at night, blurry photos and underexposed photos, which are automatically brightened and put into higher resolution by the camera of my phone. I then redact visual stimulus from the photo until I reach a similar level of uncertainty that I felt when I was there. When subjective sight so greatly informs my work as a visual artist, I am most interested in when it fails me.
I choose to work almost exclusively on wood panel in order to return an organic facet to my work, which has become so intertwined with the language of technology. Thin brushwork on the wood grain mimics the effect of visual snow or static, creating motion in the depth of shadows. Additionally, I find working at a small scale lends the paintings an intimate quality, prompting a deeper personal connection with viewers. Despite depicting liminal, desolate scenes, I always paint what I find to be beautiful, and would rather prompt engagement with the unknown than a fear of it.
Hannah Estrin (b. 2003) is an emerging oil painter currently located in Brooklyn, New York, where they are pursuing a BFA in Painting and a Minor in Media Studies at Pratt Institute. They are from Boynton Beach, Florida.