In Christopher Hanrahan’s Why Don’t We Talk Anymore [2005] the artist is seen trudging through mangrove swamps carrying a heavy sandwich board over his shoulders. On one side of the board are the words NOW NAU, and on the other NAU NOW. Hanrahan’s video is a record of a difficult and absurd task set against the natural beauty of a location that imbues proceedings with a melancholic sadness. 

Working with performance, installation and video, Hanrahan’s aesthetic is one of make-do-ness, a gentle and often amusing practice that creates sculptural environments complimented by video documentations of durational performances. Don’t Stop Me Now (It’s All I’ve Got), [2003] documents the artist, dressed as the Straw Man from The Wizard of Oz [1939], sitting on a stool in an empty photographic studio. As the music from The Wizard of Oz suddenly starts to play, Hanrahan attempts to dance. Unable to match the timing of the music, he sits exhausted back on the stool. After just a few moments the music begins again and Hanrahan springs back to life. After a grueling 1 hour and 18 minutes, the performance ends. 

Themes of fallibility and anxiety reoccur in many of Hanrahan’s videos. In Welcome To Struggle Town [2004] - based in part on passages from the diaries of former Labor leader Mark Latham – the artist plays riffs on an acoustic guitar and harmonica while attempting to sing a country and western song. Our Still Lives [Old Grey Mashy] [2006] captured the artist using his body to form the letters of the title. In both videos, as in many of his other works, the cumulative mistakes in the process lead to a result that cannot be planned or anticipated, giving the rigorous nature and ultimately formalist intent of durational performance a very human outcome.