Hannah Stippl's artistic practice focuses on painting and installations. The repetitive structure of her works evoke an ambiguous impression of nature. Horticultural installations are an important part of her practice, just as important as painting. The installation are usually developed in a different process depending weather they are indoor or outdoor installation. Indoor installations are presented only for a short limited time. Stippl follows a notion of density and abundance that can not be maintained artificially for a long time. She uses a mix of plants from different contexts (vegetables, ornamental plants, herbs, grasses, cut flowers, etc.) and artificial flowers. Borders become a blur, as the viewer can very often no longer assign what is natural or artificial.
For outdoor installations there are different rules. Here it is about longer periods, it is important to estimate the development of the plants in the coming years. "My work is the impetus for longer-term developments, wilderness is part of it. This is why I love to work with the genus of Artemisia, a little noticed, aromatic plant, which can develop beautifully and asserts itself over a long time. Today regarded as a weed, she is a strong, female and even holy plant."
"I love to work with the genus of Artemisia"
Stippl's approach to nature is very clear, there is no life without plants. "People know more about cars than they do about plants, and that doesn't even sound alarming. In workshops with children I realized they recognize every car on the street, but only about four types of plants."
"In a world with more knowledge and science than ever, we have lost the knowledge about the basics of life. There is even something called 'plant blindness', that means people do not see plants, they do not matter. This may be a consequence of the separation of nature and culture, of mind and body, and the rigorous disciplining of knowledge. To make it short, I try to make contexts visible with my work and to be indifferent to disciplines. That's the freedom you have as an artist."
Stippl's practice addresses ecology and the preservation of the environment on many different levels. She encourages individual pro-activity like planting trees, letting grass grow and enjoy the beauty of it rather then focus on strict landscape aesthetics. "Whether it is desired or not, the environment is part of my artwork. Working with only the smallest possible intervention changes the perception of the landscape without destroying the neglected beauties every place has."
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