Australian sculptor Hanna Hoyne creates off beat and surreal mixed media sculptures and installations. Hoyne is perhaps best known for her work constructed from paper and for her extraordinary Astronaut series. In these large installation pieces the artist  creates seemingly fragile astronaut suits from Asian ceremonial papers. However, despite their delicate medium, the suits are both commanding and conceptually potent. Hoyne describes one work, Soulsearchernaut About to be Born as follows: 
“Hovering above eye level, encased in a transparent, elliptical sphere is an apparently floating, life-size semi-human figure. Approaching, the golden astronaut-type figure reveals wings and a mermaid’s tail. It seems to be floating within the amniotic fluid of the transparent egg, about to be born.” 
The visual impact of the works, and others like it, can be overwhelming. The sculpture seems at once alien and familiar; monumental and delicate. In her works Hoyne reflects the feats and struggles of the human imagination. In the Astronaut series in particular, she considers the way in which we deal with the enormity of science and contentious issues such as genetic engineering.
Hoyne’s work is diverse and always produced to the highest levels. She is an artist who clearly delights in the creative process and constantly pushes herself to the next aesthetic level. However, there is something universal about her works. No matter what the point of departure for the piece, nor its material, at the heart of her work is an abiding interest in the human condition and our attempts at defining our conscious world and searching for a soul.