ABOUT HANS VAN HANS

I am a Magandjin/Brisbane-based sculptor and installation artist. I hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from RMIT University and a Master of Visual Arts from Griffith University, Queensland College of Art and Design (QCAD). My practice spans participatory sculpture, installation, critical writing, and the ongoing development of behavioural portraiture as a sculptural and conceptual methodology.

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My practice stems from questions surrounding transgender representation and the limitations of visual likeness in communicating identity. Through abstraction and participation, I investigate how a subject might also be represented through what a sculpture does: how it responds, behaves, and interacts with others. This reflects my understanding that we come to know people through repeated encounters and patterns of behaviour over time.

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Working with latex, fabric, foam, inflatables, and toys, I create responsive sculptures that invite physical interaction. I am interested in how people relate to things they do not immediately understand, and how humour, and play can open up more complex experiences of identity and embodiment.

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I use the term behavioural portraiture to describe an approach in which material behaviour and interaction become a language of representation. Rather than relying on visual likeness alone, these works invite audiences to discover qualities of a subject through participation, allowing understanding to develop through the relationship between viewer and sculpture.