Robin Hill: Critical Matters

September 1 - October 31, 2019
Another Year in LA
Los Angeles, CA

As an artist hard-wired to making work instigated by conditions that present themselves to me, (materials, spaces, people, and time among others), there is perpetual discomfort over what I will actually do, whyI will do it, how I will do it, who will care, and when will I know the answer to any of these questions.  A line from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s essay Cezanne’s Doubt, spurs me on: “only the work itself, completed and understood, is proof that there was something rather than nothing to be said.”

Critical Matters refers not only to the idea of important urgent concerns (we all know, more than we can bear at times, what they are), but also to the idea of matter being critical in and of itself, as in matter matters.

The pieces for this exhibition were made in my small studio located in rural Cape Breton, where materials are hard to come by. Over the years, the local dump, thrift stores, and the coast line have provided me with a rich array of materials to work with and from.  I have gotten into the habit of asking the question how can I put this to use? before throwing anything away. Suddenly, my way of living has caught up with my way of working. They are the same.

I have fabricated this series of drawings though processes of arranging and rearranging, mantling and dismantling, adding and subtracting, all aimed at achieving a quality of accuracy, or a sense of purpose, within the unlikely combination of materials.  Early on in the process, the circle emerged as a primary shape, and I decided to adhere to this form in one way or another as a through-line in the work. 

The compositions have been sewn, glued, cast, modelled, poured, pressed, encased, draped, surrounded, saturated, rubbed, and compressed into simple compositions on 12-inch square wooden panels, resulting in what might be thought of as samplers (think music/embroidery/ food) of possibility, intended to be repeated or expanded upon. Critical Matters is a series of material investigations derived from the haphazard appearance, and irresistible resource of, seemingly inconsequential bits of matter; nests, paper, textiles, charcoal, plaster, canvas, wax, cotton, envelopes, confetti, all materials gleaned from the scrap heap of my studio, formed on the words I might need this one day. 

If these pieces are about anything, they are about thinking critically about matter. 

- Robin Hill