Megan Hansen-Knarhoi - Jesus - photo by Stuart Page

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi – Gods Among Us

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi is a textile artist from New Zealand.

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi - Jesus - photo by Stuart Page

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi is a contemporary New Zealand artist working predominantly in sculpture and site specific installation, investigating iconography, signs and symbols. Her work celebrates, scrutinises and satirises aspects of Christianity, creating friction between the sacred and profane, the positive and the negative, the beautiful and the ugly, and the physical and the cerebral. Her concepts are intertwined in the materials and rituals of the artworks she creates.

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi - Jesus Spells - Thanks to Creative New Zealand for their generous support

“Through the repetitive and obsessive-compulsive aspect of her work, certain rituals and beliefs are ex, posed as empty arbitrary and absurd. The discipline of making is confused with obsession, making the ritual in a sense obsolete and meaningless but ironically, by its very devotion and proliferation, profound.”

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi - Jesus Spells - Thanks to Creative New Zealand for their generous support

I find these works to be incredibly powerful. The technique of constructing the work is really dramatic and adds gravitas to the work.

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi - Jesus Suits - Courtesy of PaulNache Gallery

The pieces feel like real-life Gods appearing before us, as though we were in a Guillermo Del Toro film. Amazing and, quite frankly, rather unsettling. It’s great stuff.

Megan Hansen-Knarhoi - Jesus Spells The Suter - Courtesy of The Suter Te Aratoi o Whakatu

Visit Megan’s website to see more of her work. It’s excellent.

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