Channing Hansen                       

Solar Algorithm, 2017
Hand-dyed, spun, and knit wool
Exhibition location: 150-foot Solar Tower
Photo credits: Austin Radcliffe, Eden Batki

Channing Hansen’s intricately knitted work, Solar Algorithm, uses a “score” or pattern generated by a mathematical algorithm derived from GPS gathered while hiking 4/4 trails around Mount Wilson, overlaid with plots of magnetic fields recorded by the Observatory’s solar tower, where the work is installed in situ. The yarn was dyed, spun, and knit by hand.

Channing Hansen was born and raised in Los Angeles. He studied at San Francisco Art Institute as part of its New Genres program, working mostly in performance and video. Around 2008, Hansen began developing a fiber-based art practice as a way to further his interest in science and technology. In 2011, Womb-Womb Room, a collaborative installation made with Alexandra Grant based on Faith Wilding’s Crocheted Environment (otherwise known as the Womb Room) was presented at Night Gallery, Los Angeles. His work has since been featured in solo exhibitions at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, and CRG Gallery, New York, and group exhibitions including Made in LA 2014 at the Hammer Museum, as well at The Pit Gallery, Los Angeles; 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica; Glendale College Art Gallery; Nuit Blanche, Toronto; Hilary Crisp Gallery, London; and Supportico Lopez, Berlin. His work is in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, as well as numerous private collections. Hansen is also active as an educator through the Mountain School of Art.