Elementary particles are thought to be the fundamental building blocks of the material universe. Smaller even than atoms, they can neither be broken down into nor created from smaller particles. In their work, Lucie Chan and Hannah Claus each employ a process involving the disassembly of broad narratives into their constituent fragments, examining and re-creating them as composite structures. Where Claus is interested in myth and stories that relate the human experience to its position in the cosmos, Chan focuses on the way personal stories, deconstructed, collected and recomposed, create interrelated statements.
To do so, Chan and Claus choose a process-based approach informed by matter and the medium they privilege, rooted in both handcrafts and a history of sculpture and drawing. Claus methodically assembles by hand hundreds of paper ovals filled with graphite and suspends them into cloud structures. Chan draws a multitude of small portraits on paper which are then distributed along the walls of the gallery, while presenting the stories of her subjects in stop motion animated segments. Each artist generates an intricate system, constructed of basic components that influence each other, with no particular element having lesser or greater prominence. Chan and Claus both manage to elegantly create a holistic experience, while also providing multiple points of entry for the viewer: the works are at once simple and complex.