Hathaikan is a socially engaged artist and cultural producer, often working with children, young people and families in co-created ways to highlight the value of overlooked objects and everyday experience.
Based in Manchester, Hathaikan creates works by reconstructing discarded chairs and furniture into whimsical creatures reacting to their salvage from landfill. With increasing grief surrounding climate change and cost-of-living crisis, her practice is built on resourcefulness, refraining from using new or expensive materials to show the beauty in what already exists and oppose the capitalistic consumer-driven nature of our society. Her playful approach to using everyday objects creates familiarity, allowing audiences of any age to connect to her work and inspire more people to similarly find joy in what we already have access to.