Estate of Susan Hiller
With a multimedia practice extending over 40 years, Susan Hiller was one of the most influential artists of her generation. Since first making innovative use of audio and visual technology in the early 1980s, her groundbreaking installations, multi-screen videos and audio works have achieved international recognition. Each of Hiller’s works is based on specific cultural artefacts from our society, which are used as basic materials. Many pieces explore the liminality of certain phenomena including the practice of automatic writing (Sisters of Menon, 1972/79), near death experiences (Channels, 2013) and collective experiences of unconscious, subconscious and paranormal activity (Belshazzar’s Feast, 1983-4; Psi Girls, 1999; Witness, 2000). Hiller’s powerful and resonant films range from the J Street Project (2002-05), a chillingly extensive search for every street sign in Germany bearing the word Juden (Jew), to The Last Silent Movie (2007), which also documents disappearance and absence, although this time through speech recordings of dying or extinct languages. Her psychologically charged and thematically varied practice amounts to an impassioned plea for the joys and mysteries associated with irrationality.
Susan Hiller (1940-2019) was born in Tallahasse, Florida. After graduating from Smith College in 1961, she went on to do doctoral studies in anthropology at Tulane University in New Orleans with a National Science Foundation fellowship. However she abandoned anthropology to become an artist, and from the mid ‘60s was based mainly in London. Her career has been recognised by major solo and survey exhibitions at institutions including Bloomberg SPACE, London, UK (2020); The Polygon, Vancouver, Canada (2018); Officine Grande Riparazioni, Turin, Italy (2018); Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL, USA (2017); The Model, Sligo, Ireland (2014); Samstag Foundation, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014); Summerhall, Edingburgh, UK (2014); Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Toulouse, France (2014); Tate Britain, London, UK (2011); Kunstalle Nurnberg, Germany (2011); Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain (2010); BAWAG Foundation, Vienna, Austria (2008); The Jewish Museum, New York, NY, USA (2008); Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy (2006); Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2005); Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2004); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2004); Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark (2002); Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway (1999); ICA, Philadelphia, PA, USA (1998); Tate Gallery, Liverpool, UK (1996); Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, UK (1989); and ICA, London, UK (1986). She participated in Documenta 13 and 14, Kassel, Germany (2012, 2017); Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland (2016); and in British Art Shows 2, 5 and 8, touring, UK (1984, 2000, 2015). Hiller’s work features in numerous international private and public collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA; the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA; Tate Collection, London, UK; Seralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal; and Centro de Arte Contemporanea Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil.
Estate of Susan Hiller
After Duchamp, 2016 - 2017
Estate of Susan Hiller
Homage to Marcel Duchamp: Aura (Blue Woman), 2017
Estate of Susan Hiller
Rough Places, 2015
Estate of Susan Hiller
Rough Moonlit Nights,2015
Estate of Susan Hiller
First Aid: Homage to Joseph Beuys, 1969-2016
Estate of Susan Hiller
Homage to Joseph Beuys: Sa Testa, 1969-2016
Estate of Susan Hiller
Lost and Found, 2016
Estate of Susan Hiller
Resounding (Ultraviolet), 2014
Estate of Susan Hiller
Channels, 2013
Multi-channel video installation, 106 television sets, 9 media players, 7 dvd players, signal splitters. Commissioned by Matt’s Gallery, London
Estate of Susan Hiller
Homage to Gertrude Stein: Lucidity & Intuition, 2011
Art Deco writing desk containing a collection of modified books on automatism and related issues, on round plinth
72 x 47.5 cm
28 3/8 x 18 3/4 in
Estate of Susan Hiller
From India to the Planet Mars (10), 1997-2017
Estate of Susan Hiller
Measure by Measure II, 1993 - 2012
Estate of Susan Hiller
From India to the Planet Mars, 1997-2017
Unique photographic transparencies in wall mounted lightboxes
Dimensions variable
20 1/2 x 26 5/8 x 4 3/4 in
Estate of Susan Hiller
The Secrets of Sunset Beach, 1987
Estate of Susan Hiller
Lucid Dreams 2, 1983
Estate of Susan Hiller
Alphabet (Girls), 1985
Estate of Susan Hiller
Native, 1984
Estate of Susan Hiller
Psi Girls, 1999
Estate of Susan Hiller
Belshazzar's Feast (Campfire version), 1983 - 1984
20 minute single-channel multi-screen video programme
Estate of Susan Hiller
Magic Lantern
1987
3 channel 35mm slide projection with sound, synchronised, 12 min
Estate of Susan Hiller
10 Months
1977-1979
10 black and white composite photographs, 10 texts, arranged sequentially 203 x 518 cm (overall)/ 79 7/8 x 203 7/8 in (overall)
Estate of Susan Hiller
Mary Essene, 1975/81
Estate of Susan Hiller
So Don't Let it Frighten
1975 - 1981
Pencil on paper under blue perspex (1975); typescript and water colour on blue paper (1981) 64 x 91 cm / 25 3/16 x 35 13/16 in.
Estate of Susan Hiller
Clove, 1972
Sewn canvases, natural dyes on linen
101.6 x 102.1 x 2.1 cm
40 x 40 1/4 x 0 7/8 in
Estate of Susan Hiller
Paprika, 1972
Museum Exhibitions
Exhibitions
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Controlled Burnings: Hiller, Latham, Schne...
4 May – 10 June 2023
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Susan Hiller: Rough Seas
14 March – 15 April 2023
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Portals
10 February – 9 April 2022
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Delights of an Undirected Mind
7 August – 28 August 2021
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Susan Hiller: Paraconceptual
28 April – 10 June 2017
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Susan Hiller
13 November 2015 – 9 January 2016