COLOUR LESS
Evolving from an initial concern about the way his sculpture was recorded, John Hilliard‘s photographic work has persistently dealt with issues of representation, paralleled by a systematic examination of the medium of photography itself – a simultaneous act of critique and celebration.
His latest work is centred on the decisions one makes in determining a ‘point-of-view’ (both literally and figuratively) in respect of a constant subject, the results allowing more than one perspective at the same time through the agency of the camera. In a recent text, Profiles, he says:
In examining the consequences of adopting one point-of-view rather than another when recording a symmetrical object, and at the same time exploring the camera’s capacity for making multiple exposures onto a single piece of film, I have made numerous works that combine either three or (more usually) four perspectives as a unified composite – allowing a simultaneity of otherwise separate depictions, and resulting in the complex image originating from this interface (eg Four Subjects Viewed From Around APrepared Base, 2004; Inside Out, 2005). A desire to escape the somewhat tedious and pedestrian method of producing these triple and quadruple exposures (all painstakingly measured and lit to ensure a constancy of distance and illumination), coupled with an interest in addressing some asymmetrical subjects, has led to a procedural and representational reduction. In restricting the variable point-of-view to its lowest number (two) for the purpose of comparing-and-contrasting, a recent body of work is confined to only a double exposure, and the subjects are chosen because, from two opposing sides, they maintain a particular (if laterally inverted) profile.
John Hilliard lives and works in London, and has shown his work extensively in Europe and North America. Solo exhibitions in 2008 include Studio Dabbeni, Lugano; Galleria Artra, Milan; L.A. Galerie, Frankfurt; Galerie Raum mit Licht , Vienna.