When Sarah Hanssen inherited her father’s vast portfolio of abstract expressionist paintings, she was unsure at first about what to do with the collection. Many of us wrestle with similar questions in the wake of a parent’s death, as we find ourselves in the possession of their boxes of ephemera, years of files and documents. For Hanssen, the issue was more complex. Her father, the artist Peter Hanssen, was also her abuser.
As they were, the paintings elided crucial aspects of who her father was and what he had done, his sensibility as an artist and his role, in Hanssen’s life, as sexual abuser. About a year ago, Hanssen took his paintings down from her walls, deciding she could no longer surround herself with the vestiges of her trauma. Confronted with the blankness left behind in their absence, though, she found that merely taking them down was not enough. How, then, to proceed? Baked into that practical concern was a more fundamental question: How can we move past trauma? This is the question at the heart of “Two Things Are True,” on view at Distortion Society in Beacon through January 31.
Hanssen decided that in order for the paintings to return to her walls, they would need to change form. Their metamorphosis began in February of last year. Hanssen dropped off paintings with three artist friends with a simple assignment: transform them. Some of the artists painted over the works, others entirely deconstructed them, building something new with their constituent parts. While it began with friends, word of Hanssen’s project traveled fast. The idea snowballed. Now, over 30 artists have made contributions, using a wide array of approaches to reconstitute the artwork. Their methods are informed by their own approaches to art, as well as to their specific relationships with both Hanssen and their ideas around sexual abuse and grief. There is no money exchanged. The transformed artworks have all been gifted back to Hanssen by the artists; the project is an expression of community care.
The show, co-curated by Hanssen and Michelle Silver, Distortion Society’s gallery director, contains works by Chris Nau, John Ringhofer, Melanie Cooper Pennington, Chad Collins, Arielle Toelke, John Whitlock, Melanie Delach, Gemma Bailey, Elizabeth Brunnemer, Candice Smith Corby, Stephen Halker, Jesse Jones, Joanna Muesleisen, Megan Prince, Fara Tucker, and Cecilia Vasquez. The works are not for sale. The current show only contains a portion of the ever-growing collection. With 50 pieces completed and an equal number of paintings still awaiting transformation, Hanssen plans for a larger show of the complete collection later in the year.
Not a painter herself, Hanssen’s artistic contribution to the project is a feature-length documentary. Even as a longtime filmmaker, this is new terrain for Hanssen. “I’ve always wanted to be behind the camera,” she explains, “and now I’m the subject of my own film.” It is a film about Hanssen, but it is also a film about grief and trauma and how we move past those things, how we heal from what Hanssen thoughtfully calls “post-traumatic injuries.”
While the project may have begun with trauma, Hanssen believes it is distinctly hopeful at its core. “The first step is admitting that the trauma took place,” she explains, “but you don’t want to hang out in that place too long, because it’s pretty depressing.” “Two Things Are True” is about Hanssen’s rejection of the trauma zone. Her refusal to live her life surrounded by her trauma—to have it literally lining her walls—and also her refusal to bury it. Hanssen knows that there are a lot of people carrying trauma who feel unable to heal—she knows because she used to be one of them. Hanssen is hopeful that the framework laid out by this project will help others emerge out from under their own traumas. “I think we all hope that by dealing with trauma and grief in a little bit more of a public way that there will be more access to healing,” she says.
This article appears in January 2025.
