Statement
My work interrogates the contemporary Catholic Church and its teachings on sex and gender as they manifest in the Virgin Mary. Mary’s body is physically present in the daily lives of many Catholics. She is found in statues on walls and in gardens, pinned on car visors, and worn on medallions; however, her presence is not reflected in the laws of the Catholic Church. Women cannot be ordained priests and do not have a voice in the Vatican. The teachings on sexual ethics prevent women from having physical and reproductive autonomy, and discourage female pleasure in almost every circumstance. My work points to this discrepancy, and questions how the church can simultaneously worship (without calling it worship) a woman while actively preventing women from having equal space within the church. By extension, this work also examines these same practices in the current political climate, where feminine power is scarce.
Bio
Hannah Marshall is a Boston-based artist working primarily with handmade paper. She was born and raised in Eastern Connecticut with two sisters. Her dad is devoutly Catholic and was ordained a deacon when Hannah was eleven years old. His ordination process gave Hannah a behind-the-scenes view into the Catholic Church: she saw the church before the lights were on, before the decorations were up, before the candles were lit. The church became more like a home and less like a sacred, mystical space. This experience coupled with her mom not being Catholic allowed her to see the church as permeable; as something that can be learned, negotiated, and left. She holds multiple relationships to the church: an insider with special access to the church that most Catholics don’t have, a good Catholic, and a non-Catholic. She has always known that The Catholic Church can exist without all its decadence, a real person can acquire a position of power, and that not all people are Catholic. This half-Catholic upbringing greatly impacted her life and work as an artist. She is interested in articulating and illustrating feminine power.