Poetics of Debris

Last October (2019), I sat in Hannah Waiters’ studio one sunny Friday morning. She made me tea and we discussed memories, found objects, family, and photography. I was very intrigued by her ideas and enamored by her artwork, so much that I didn’t realize I was running a fever until later. These were different times.

After our initial visit, we met a few times at Meyer Library and planned a show that would open after her commencement exhibition; one that would take over and transform spaces in the library. I was excited to imagine Hannah’s work in Meyer library; she developed a site-specific proposal, one inviting visual interaction.

Hannah’s work is about familiar objects. She finds and retells the history of personal, vulnerable, and powerful objects. Being in the presence of Hannah’s work one thinks of home; one’s home or others’ homes. The homes, and Hannah’s objects, are often left behind like debris. They are full of ghosts. Hannah builds assemblage sculptures that narrate how scars are transformed into memory and how memory is cemented, or dissolved, as history.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Hannah Waiters scavenges sculptural memorabilia that speak to her identity: a first-generation African-American female fighting the curse of temporality. She is a Master of Fine Arts and MA in Visual and Critical Studies candidate at California College of the Arts.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, we are unable to realize her show in Meyer; however, we are pleased to showcase her work on the Libraries’ new digital exhibition site as our inaugural exhibition.

— Yomna Osman, Libraries Assistant Curator