Steve Illustrated By Hannah Robinson: Curator’s notes
An appetite for life
Hannah Robinson’s work is about the funny, the admirable, and the sometimes nonsensical parts of life. Ageing, food stains, dog poop and that outfit that doesn’t quite go but you choose to wear anyway, don’t escape her pen. Her work refuses to take life too seriously, instead celebrating the absurd details of the everyday.
Her appreciation of character, her love for material culture and her visual puns make her cartoons uniquely delectable. Dripping with enjoyment, her work will leave you feeling like you’ve just eaten an amazing sandwich. You’ll spot every flavour, texture, and the depth of life’s combined ingredients.
My notes are only the beginning of what you can feast on. Each guest will pick up on different particularities and choices in the cartoons because of the rich layers of Robinson’s wit. I hope my personal reflections act as hors devours for that experience.
Parallel Play
In At the Salon, old ladies wait for their hair to set at the hair salon, their old-fashioned curlers elaborately decorated as tiered cakes with fruit, scallops of frosting and biscuits galore. Most of the women are reading- the bible, a newspaper- but one lady stares directly at the viewer, as if this is an unexpected photograph of this women’s only space.
Alongside this is A Club Night Aged 19, where young women line up at the mirror in the bathroom of a club. Some re-do their makeup whilst others wait their turn. This too is a private space where women gather. Most of the women ignore each other, but there’s a sense of community in their parallel self-care.
With House Party, we laugh at this same dichotomy of life- the collective and the individual, the young and old. All the activity of an apartment building- from fed-up parents trying to get some alone time reading while their son interrupts, to students causing a ruckus downstairs, to someone taking a bath while there’s a queue for the toilets.
Robinson’s work also shows an interest in food and the places where people enjoy it. A pair of illustrations from Hannah’s time in Lisbon show the café as both a place for food and for chat. The cartoon's simple messy ink lines capture neatly ordered cabinets of bread rolls and other scrumptious pastries.
Shown together, these images capture a collective spirit of humanity. In these spaces, people gather to party, to lunch, for self-care or gossip, young and old. Even when they don’t interact, there’s a sense of parallel play, like children unaware of each other’s presence playing side by side.
Playful and witty
Opposite House Party, you glimpse Robinson’s witty sense of humour through a selection of her cartoons. Spaghetti pokes fun at Hannah’s own appetite for good food. Treaty of Versailles imagines the clever yet single-track mind of a puppy ready for a snack. Hot Dog brings us on a Peter-Panlike journey through London, and Oh Crumbs plays around with an incoming avalanche- in this case, a crumbling cookie.
As you continue to the second room, we see Robinson’s editorial spirit and eye for design. Inspired by old jazz albums and colour pops, her posters and cartoons alike have a sense of movement and texture that call attention back to their wit. A gentleman who has spilled sauce on his shirt, framed by the dotted background surrounding him. Skiers on the slopes, their speed and chaos created by a colour-blocked diagonal. A group of people gathered at a dinner party, their meal highlighted against a vibrant red table.
Humour in the every day
Finally, on the far wall, we see a selection of Robinson’s work for the New Yorker. Initially published as spots throughout the print magazine, this is a rare occasion to see them all at once.
“Bags” is one of my personal favourites of Robinson’s illustrations. An old lady in pearls, tweed skirt and a small structured purse, the hipster in a black turtleneck with an artsy tote and latte, the small child with a back-pack big enough to tip him over. This is a celebration of difference. We all carry things around, but how we choose to do so expresses a range of personality and whimsy.
Robinson’s other New Yorker piece Flexible Working is a depiction of modern technology rarely found in her illustration. Its inclusion here is clear- as we see a line up of characters attempting to work remotely in unexpected places. Laptops out at a romantic Italian dinner, a video-call lecture being made from the toilet, a typewriter on a rocky boat, a landline phone on a motorbike and a computer during surgery.
This work pokes fun at our obsession with constant connectivity. In turn inconvenient, unromantic and even dangerous, these pieces bring a clever twist to the conversation about how tech interferes with daily life.
A taste for more
I hope you enjoy spotting the idiosyncrasies of Hannah’s many characters in this exhibit. If, like me, you’re left with a taste for more, you can find Hannah’s work on her website and her instagram @robinsondraws.
Steve Illustrated: Watching people and the occasional dog through illustration and cartoon is at Hello & Farewell Studio (330 Hornsey Rd, Finsbury Park, London N7 7HE) until the 27th April, 2024.
