When looking at the work of Hannah Chalew in the 2010 No Dead Artists show at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, one has the impression of looking at a ghost town. The drawings are landscapes reminiscent of small one-pump gas station towns found in rural areas of maybe Mississippi or Texas, and if it had not been for Hurricane Katrina, this might have been true.
The drawings are very elegantly detailed ball-point line drawings of New Orleans streets and intersections, complete with rundown buildings, scraggly trees, and cruciform telephone poles. The power of these drawings is emphasized by the way Chalew has presented them nearly three-dimensionally, with certain foreground sections hung about an inch further away from the wall than the background. This, and the use of thread for power lines in the panoramic drawing Between, lends a materiality to the drawings which makes them seem much more than ordinary sketches.
Drawing is a very open ended term in the art world these days. Many art schools choose to have separate concentrations for both painting and drawing, because each has its own realm of processes. Where painting is a very specific term relating to a tradition of technique and concept, drawing is generally considered to be a form of thinking. Certainly both painting and drawing are exactly that, but painting is usually restricted to its materials. A drawing can be done with any material in any capacity, just so long as it illustrates a thought.
Chalew has chosen for her materials the more traditional ink on paper, which has its appeal, considering how both Eastern and Western cultures embrace its simplicity. Even more appealing is the way the drawings are like those of contemporary draftsmen like architects and city planners, only instead of being blueprints for a future development they celebrate that which is urban gone horribly wrong. Every suburb in its planning stages looks to be a Utopia, but after it has been built and used it is a very different story. This is the most important theme to grasp as even now the people of New Orleans are trying to rebuild their home without losing sight of a diverse culture.
Hannah Chalew will be on view along with the other artists in the 2010 No Dead Artists exhibition at Jonathan Ferrara Gallery on Julia Street through September 28. For more information and to view the show go to www.jonathanferraragallery.com.
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