Hannah Chalew

Hannah Chalew is an artist, educator and environmental activist raised and currently working in New Orleans. Her artwork explores what it means to live in a time of global warming with a collective uncertain future, and specifically what that means for those of us living in Southern Louisiana. Her practice explores the historical legacies that got us here to help imagine new possibilities for a livable future. She received her BA from Brandeis University in 2009, and her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2016. Chalew has exhibited widely around New Orleans and has shown around the country at the Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO; Minnesota Center for the Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN; Dieu Donné, New York, NY; Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC, and other venues. Her work is held in the collections of the City of New Orleans and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

Research

Creating Ink from Petrochemical Waste:
Materially Recombining Legacies of Injustice to Envision New Futures

For this project, I will work with residents in Plaquemines Parish fighting petrochemical pollution to identify and collect waste particulate emitted from fossil fuel facilities. I will than collaborate with the Thames-Rawlins research group at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School for Polymers Science and Engineering, where the chemists will determine the best way to create a sustainable ink from this material. This ink will be used to increase the visibility of the environmental justice issues facing Southern Louisiana communities. Petrochemical pollution and waste in South Louisiana are a microcosm that allows me to explore the large-scale repercussions of a collective fossil-fuel-addicted culture during a time of global warming. Once the ink has been created, I will use it to create a suite of drawings that will explore the issues of petrochemical pollution, its historical legacies, and the possibilities for a livable future in this region. In addition to compensating community members for their time helping collect the waste particulate, I will also work with the residents living near these facilities to determine the ways they can use the ink; for example, for art workshops or protest-sign-making.