Current Paintings
For Hill, the studio acts in much the same way as the laboratory does for the scientist. It is an environment in which he undertakes a laborious, knowledgeable, yet sometimes unknown, journey of experimentation and discovery. A process guided by decades of experience in the complex interactions between materials. The materials selected by Hill involve a mixture of water and solvent-based paints; more recently, new technology-based industrial paints have become incorporated into the work. Beyond these works, Hill’s use of non-traditional materials is extensive, including resins, cow dung, grit, and bitumen.
To Hill, the canvas becomes a reactionary space, within which silos are built and created alongside one another. Shifting reactionary and conflicting processes occur before settling into unified macro- and microscopic worlds. Worlds that are fragile, yet symbiotic; reactionary, yet harmonious; visceral, yet otherworldly. The resulting work synchronously recalls post-industrial landscapes, aerial photography, and microscopic reactions. The addition of found objects serves to ground the work, placing the viewer back within their anthropometric experience of reality and their physical and cultural presence within the everyday. The display of the current work is a new departure point for Hill. Positioning the paintings as floor pieces becomes particularly pertinent within the context of the CBCB, requiring the viewer to become an observer from above, much like a scientist encounters a petri dish when observed through a microscope.
Dr. Davy Smith, from Hidden Kingdoms Shifting Worlds, July 2022 Full article: http://www.derekhill.co.uk/news-press-exhibitions/open-now-hidden-kingdoms-shifting-worlds-exhibition-baddiley-clark-building-newcastle/
