In I Did Have a Mother, Hannah interrogates the intersection of faith, memory, and the insidious power of media in shaping personal and collective narratives. At the center, a black-and-white nun (an emblem of devotion, purity, and maternal care) stands detached within a fragmented landscape. Yet she also represents submission to a heavenly groom, a stark nod to the religious extremism that shaped Hannah’s own upbringing.

Surrounding her, illusion paper takes the form of both checkerboard and fleur-de-lis patterns, directly mirroring the lattice of confessional screens that separate priest from parishioner (symbols of authority, secrecy, and moral judgment). Vintage televisions, frequent motifs in Hannah’s work, symbolize the mass media’s role in dictating identity, morality, and gendered expectation. Crafted largely by cis white men, these manufactured realities are consumed en masse, seeping into internal monologues and reinforcing rigid societal roles.

Above, a looming red eye swirls hypnotically… an allusion to the manufactured belief systems that shape the world, hypnotic in their reach and persistence. The word “CORPSE” emblazoned across the composition serves as a stark reminder of loss (both personal and ideological). This piece is not only an exploration of maternal absence but a reckoning with the forces that shape belief, identity, and the way we mourn.