Exhibitions
MARY ADDISON HACKETT: MY TOOLS ARE LIKE HOURS
Tri-Star Arts / 4450 Candora Ave., Candoro Marble Building June 20 - August 27th (Reception: June 20 5:00pm - 8:00pm)
Mary Addison Hackett
Tri-Star Arts is pleased to present the next exhibition in their Golden Chain Gallery project space located at the historic Candoro Marble Building. My Tools Are Like Hours by Mary Addison Hackett (Nashville, TN) opens Friday, June 20 and will run through Wednesday, August 27, 2025. This show is located within the unique architectural space of a narrow wooden stairwell.
An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 20, 2025 from 5:00 until 8:00 pm (artist in attendance). The address is 4450 Candora Avenue, Knoxville, TN 37920 and admission is always free of charge. Visitors should drive only on the crushed gravel driveway and parking lot surfaces. Driving vehicles on the lawn is always prohibited.
In My Tools Are Like Hours, Hackett turns to pinhole photography as both method and metaphor to explore the intersection between photography, neurodiversity, and mental health. Without a viewfinder or lens, there is an element of chance, and imperfection is inherent. The resulting photographs function less as polished artifacts and more as durational documents shaped by time and attention.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” - Audre Lorde
"The trail I’ve been walking is located on the former grounds of Clover Bottom, a site with a layered history: once a plantation worked by enslaved people, later a state-run institution for individuals with intellectual disabilities—both scarred by systemic neglect and abuse. Segments of the trail follow the Stones River, where detritus from Nashville’s 2010 flood remains visible in the trees. ‘The soil holds memories’ is a phrase that echoes in my head. I don’t have a sound reason for dragging a red tool cart onto the greenway trail, but neither do I need one. The cart has a small pinhole—no larger than a pinprick—behind which rests light-sensitive paper. At home, I construct idiosyncratic still lifes and build cameras from household objects, documenting ephemeral traces of daily life. I move between interior and exterior spaces, working across genres: still life, landscape, self-portraiture. The process is slow and purposeful. There is a performative quality to the work, and I document that as well. I began this project while undergoing a formal Autism diagnosis and in the wake of a burnout marked by depression and anxiety. What started as a personal journey using the mechanics of the camera obscura (Latin for ‘dark chamber’) led to a deeper understanding of self—and ultimately an act of resistance." - Mary Addison Hackett, Nashville, TN, May 2025
Mary Addison Hackett (b. Atlanta, GA) is an artist whose observational practice examines the construction of meaning, memory, and representation in everyday life. Calling into question the tenuous divide between art and life, personal experience and philosophical inquiry, her work is guided by research, identity, feminism, temporality, and chance. Her practice spans photography, painting, video, installation, and writing. Hackett has exhibited and screened her work widely at museums, galleries, and film festivals across the United States, including Unrequited Leisure (Nashville), PØST (Los Angeles), The Joshua Treenial at BoxoProjects (Joshua Tree), Serious Topics (Los Angeles), Aurora Picture Show (Houston), Plexus Projects (Brooklyn), Marcia Wood Gallery (Atlanta), Tinney Contemporary (Nashville), Kristi Engle Gallery (Los Angeles), the Ogden Museum and the Torrance Art Museum. Her work has been reviewed and featured in The Los Angeles Times, New American Paintings, Two Coats of Paint, Burnaway, Hyperallergic, and The Nashville Scene. She was awarded a 2024 Current Art Fund Grant, a re-granting program through Tri-Star Arts and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and her work has been supported by grants from Desert X Artist Relief Fund, BAVC (Bay Area Video Coalition), and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. She is a 2022 Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship Grant nominee. Mary Addison Hackett holds an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a BFA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She is currently based in Nashville, TN.
