Stars, green screens, butterflies, princesses, fruit, magic and candy: within an absurd and colourful landscape, objects are blown up larger-than-life, surfaces condense repeatedly and documentary and constructed imagery co-exist and collide. Through photography, video and sculpture, Exiting the Castle extends Doucet’s ongoing project exploring illness, fantasy and wish fulfillment through the lens of her own experience receiving a wish trip to Disney World as a child, following two years of treatment for Lymphoma. In this iteration, Doucet focuses on wishmaking as brand identity, exploring the many ways corporate visual languages co-opt the universal—and potentially radical—gesture of making a wish.
The artist would like to thank Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Winnipeg Arts Council and Manitoba Arts Council.
Hannah Doucet is a visual artist and arts educator from Winnipeg, based in Toronto. She works within photography, video and sculpture to explore fantasy, illness, and the body. She has exhibited at venues including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; PLATFORM, Winnipeg; Arsenal Contemporary Art, Toronto; and The New Gallery, Calgary. Doucet won the inaugural PLATFORM Photography Award and was a recipient of the New Generation Photography award. She is one of four founders of Blinkers, a gallery in Winnipeg, where she was a co-director until August 2021. Doucet attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Summer 2024.
