GIANNA CHRISTELLA HAYES

Biography

Gianna Christella Hayes is a multidisciplinary artist working amongst textiles, photography, film, digital art, and the natural world. Her cross-disciplinary practice is manifested as a form of regenerative healing as a means to unlock ancestral traditions as sites of resilience. Her work interweaves remnants of the past while simultaneously birthing our futures to engage with themes within ethnobotany, ephemerality, sensory languages, the African diaspora, and multicultural identities. Gianna was born on unceded Tongva Land in Los Angeles, CA, and is currently based on unceded Darug Land in Sydney.

Artist Statement

Gianna’s hand-dyed works explore remembrance and alchemical divination with the use of plants and elements connected to her lineages. Plantscapes are ancestral imprints, infused with healing properties, histories, traditions, and ceremonies. Full of possibility, versatility and creativity, a Plantscape can be used as a talisman; altar cloth; wall hanging; framed, or adorned on the body, neck, head, and hair. Spirit Garments are wearable medicine infused with botanical imprints, pigments, and essence, unveiling the ever changing hues present in nature, drawing parallels to the natural world and the human experience.