Fiona Hall

Known for her use of intricate craftwork contemporary artist Fiona Hall is able to bring to light the issues that a modern society face such as consumerism and globalization. Hall creates connection between humans and their luster for consumer products through a range of materials that very much distinguish the disturbing attachment that humans have with various products.

Hall very much claims craft as her art, as her works are constructed through a range of different mediums, such as sculpture, photography, beadwork, painting, mix-media shredding and knitting. It is through her use of media that she is able to create a distinct link between meaning and context.



It is in Halls work “Medicine bundle for the non-born baby” that she is able to visually construct meaning and context to the audience. The work focuses on the dependence that humans have grown on consumer products. Hall also attempts to draw our attention to the idea that as a consumerist society we are also willing to feed our children all types of preservatives and chemicals. Hall uses shredded up coke cans that are kitted together to make a babies jacket, booties and bottles. The artwork investigates the history of Coca Cola and its medicinal purposes in the United States. The use of the Coco-Cola brand is not only a representation of the chemicals that parents allow their children to consume it is also used as a symbol of globalism and capitalism. It is obvious that Halls use of medium is vital to how the audience interprets her work. It is through the use of this specific subject matter that the socio-political context is made extremely evident.



Hall also uses installation pieces in order to construct a distinct connection between humans and their connection with the environment. Although Hall focuses on the negative impact that humans have on the environment and the harm they inflict upon it. In order to express the meaning of her works Hall uses day to day objects in order to strike a deeper connection between the installation and the audience. Her carefull use of material to portray meaning within her works is very much a kin to her personal aesthetic. The use of small glass beads in her installation constructs a deeper meaning to her work as a it creates a distinct connection between sea life and its fragility. She makes this clear in her statement that the beads a representation of “offshore trading between wastewater runoff and the declining aquatic environments of the ocean.(Ewington, 2005, p.150) It is through this piece that Hall is able to invite the audience the connection between human action and it effect on the environment, in the case the ocean. In order to really have make evident her meaning Hall uses plastic pip in order to distinctly portray her meaning. The glass beads run into plastic pipes, this enforces her meaning. It is through the juxtaposition that Hall is able to visually describe the connection between human action and its impact of sea life. Through her works Hall is able to bring to light the impacts of subconscious connection between humans and their behaviors’ and their subconscious desire for consumer goods.