Shana Hoehn on Texas Roots, Cheerleading, and Sculptural Fragments

In the latest installment of Glasstire's 'Tex-Pats' series, Chloe Victoria Powers interviews Los Angeles-based artist Shana Hoehn about how her East Texas upbringing continues to shape her practice. Hoehn, who earned her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art, creates sculptures and drawings using local trees, metal, and charcoal. Her work features fragmented limbs, braids, and breasts that reference Texas pageantry and cheer culture, exploring themes of institutional control and resilience. Hoehn discusses her use of cheerleading stunts like 'Pike' and 'Basket Toss' as symbols of both triumph and vulnerability, and how she draws on research into hysteria studies, hypnosis, and levitation imagery. She explains that fragments function like words, allowing her to focus on gesture without distraction. Hoehn also reflects on the role of trees in her work, sourcing wood from Texas and recently from Pasadena windstorms that fed the Altadena fires. She addresses the tension between desire and precarity, particularly around reproductive rights, and notes her interest in incorporating medical systems into future work. The interview covers her process of sketching, using 'timeout' for unfinished pieces, and leaving chisel marks for a less polished finish.