Julie Hill, Deserts on the moons of other planets

Within the architecture of the podium section, a cold moon is perceived over cosmic distances. A humming emanates from its dark equatorial regions. It is calling. ☽ Reflected light illuminates the surface at a 35-degree angle of incidence, revealing dark lines snaking in patterns of undulation and divergence. Slithering dunes composed of loose, ice coated sediment forced by the wind into various markings: waves, cat scratches, intricate fingerprints. ☽ Vast sand seas immerse in an intense psychological experience, giving way to flat, transitional zones of overall greyness. Forms and shapes are hard to recognise and appear as quickly as they are eroded. According to legend this place has the power to steal consciousness.

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Passen-gers - a site-specific exhibition series at the Brunswick Centre - is pleased to announce its fourth exhibition, 'Deserts on the moons of other planets' by Julie Hill - an installation that transposes an otherworldly landscape into the architecture of the Brunswick Centre.

Drawing on the filmic and science-fiction qualities of the site, Hill creates a mise-en-scène using mirrors and fabric printed with the deserts of the Saturnian moon Titan (Earth's analogue within our solar system). Splicing fact and fiction, a narrative unfolds that draws on the existential philosophies that inspired both the building's architect Patrick Hodgkinson and Michelangelo Antonioni, who shot a scene for his film The Passenger at The Brunswick in the 1970s. Drawing on the use of mirroring and doubling within this film - as well as the contrast between urban and natural landscapes - the resulting installation revolves around multiple dualities such as earth/moon, interior/exterior, desert/concrete, to explore our sense of place, not just on Earth, but in the Universe.

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Events

Sat 01 Apr, 6 pm
Artist dinner exploring desert landscapes of the Saturnian moon Titan.
To register for the artist dinner on the 01 April please email [email protected]

Sat 08 Apr, 3 pm
Film screening of The Passenger, Curzon Renoir followed by panel discussion with David Levitt (Levitt Bernstein) and Farrah Jarral (Broadcaster/Anthropologist). For information and booking please visit:
www.curzoncinemas.com/film-info/the-passenger

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Julie Hill constructs narratives that unfold through various media such as photography, sculpture and installation. Sources of fact and fiction act as springboards for mise-en-scène that merge objects, texts and interventions to question the divide between the known and the unknown. Recent work has focused on otherworldly landscapes inspired by scientific cosmology and literature surrounding geology, magic and the cosmos.

Julie studied at Central Saint Martins, the Royal College of Art and is currently the recipient of a Royal Academy Schools Fellowship (2017-18). Her work has been shown at Glasgow International Festival (2016); Tate Britain, Dimensions Variable (Miami) and Guest Projects as well as informal interventions in communication networks and public space. Her work has been featured in The Miami Rail, The Independent, the Guardian, Artreview.com, IDEA, Aesthetica, NYLON and Modern Painters amongst others. She has been awarded Arts Council and Wellcome Trust funding for her artistic and curatorial projects including Cartographies of Life & Death (LSHTM/Artakt) and Crying Out Loud, a platform she co-founded that uses exhibitions and events to explore femininity in contemporary culture. Residencies include Lumen, Italy (2016) and The Florence Trust (2013-14).

www.juliehill.co.uk

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Image: Julie Hill, Deserts on the moons of other planets (detail), mirror and fabric printed with images of the deserts of Titan (taken by Cassini-Huygens), 2017