Hannah Toussaint
she/they
Athens, GA, USA
Hannah Toussaint is a metalsmith, researcher, and artist. Her BA is from the University of New Orleans with an emphasis in costume design. She completed a post-bacc program at the University of North Texas for jewelry and metals. She is a current MFA
“My work responds to my everyday experience- sensory overload, anxiety, and grieving that grows from the hopeless doom of our collective reality. We cling to our belongings, crafting relationships with our possessions. I am attracted to these relationships and the memories of objects. Using prong-like fixtures to bind fragments of once loved possessions, I create adornment that brings materials together to form an unanticipated bond, echoing queer kinship and found family. While making, I reflect on emotional states such as belonging, grief, and loss through assembling, sifting, and collaging.”
What does being queer mean to you in relation to your material choices? Is it something you consider?
“My material choices are influenced by queerness, I tend to use materials that are overlooked and not traditionally used in jewelry, which feels very queer to me. I collect fragments that have been broken signifying a uselessness that sits within a queer framework. The objects I choose have usually lost their original function, donning a uselessness that invokes queer failure. I definitely consider this in my process."
"Holding", Dichroic glass, silver, postcard image, broken ceramic fragment, found mushroom coral, found electrical parts, spring steel, 3" x 2" x .75", 2024“I think both are true. For me, my queerness definitely influences the choices I make in my process, but isn't necessarily always what the work is about. I like to think of queerness as a type of lens which my work can be seen and understood through. I embody my queerness everyday through lived experience, so it would only make sense that my work would be influenced by these experiences and observed as part of a queer experience."
Is the work queer because the maker is queer, or is it queer because the subject matter is queer?
Anything else you would like to share about this work? This can be an important part of the process, sourcing materials, or research.
“The found materials used in this brooch were sourced in Athens, Georgia and Denton, Texas."