In 2019 Seán Hannan spent his residency at Syb researching the controversial 17th-century Frisian diplomat, publicist, and ‘spy’ Lieuwe van Aitzema. His project resulted in, among other works, a video installation in which apparently ordinary images tell an intimate story. Seán commissioned a private detective to track and spy on his father for two days, whom he hadn’t seen in many years. His professional fascination with surveillance, espionage, and secrecy suddenly became very personal.

The work I Think I Can consists of an ongoing series of X-files posters in which the UFO has been Photoshopped out of this famous image. Each version of the poster shows subtle differences in the cloud formations in the background. An engraved nameplate reads “I Think I Can (number),” suggesting the power of wishful thinking and playfully referencing the childhood story The Little Engine that Could.

Sean Hannan’s work is driven by a never-ending curiosity about the invisible and mysterious. In search of leaked documents, whistleblower’s testimonies, and conspiracy theories, Hannan roams the domains of computer hackers, political influencers and agitators. The informational gems he finds are used as source materials for his projects, through which Hannan explores how alternative, speculative sources of information, such as fake news and amateur journalism, affect our emotional well being. His work embraces the infinite, murky stream of online information in all its complexity and intricacy, and creates a world where truth and fiction are now no longer at odds with one another, and where doubt always trumps certainty.