Tanya is...

Tanya Hart is an Australian visual artist, writer, teacher and performer. She has travelled and exhibited in in Australia and China, and has been living and working in Hong Kong for the last six years. Her work extends through photography, hand-made objects, paper arts, journalling, poetry, performance and installation.

In my life, most of my work is about relationships, communities, self-expression and making a positive difference in the world. I work as a volunteer with Landmark Education to create more powerful possibility for people in my communities and in the world. In my job I work in schools with Hong Kong (Chinese) teenagers, teaching English and empowerment through performance.

By contrast, my artwork is about the microcosm; about capturing and extending small moments in time, emotion, space; looking into the 'dark corners' and finding the thing that is beautiful there; sublimating; finding the political within the personal.

Inspired by strange obsessive women whose brilliance is in their power of observation. Sophie Calle and Marguerite Duras. Anais Nin. Alice Walker. I'm inspired by mothers who bring their whole self to their work.

I find it impossible to make 'art' while I'm travelling. I enjoy being a tourist and looking at things as an outsider, taking snapshots, writing emails, but there's no 'art' in it for me. For something to feel like art, I need to have pulled it through my own experience. To photograph the fish drying on the roof, I need to have been astounded that someone would do that on MY side of the roof where I'm drying my laundry. I photographed the drain after I fell in it on the way to work. It has to be all about me.