Chris Hill: Under a Freeway
April 1st through May 1st, 2006
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 1, at 7 PM
Black Maria Gallery announced that it will exhibit a new series of works by Los Angeles photographer Chris Hill. The exhibition will open on Saturday, April 1, at 7 PM.
Two years in the making, Hill’s new series, titled “Under a Freeway,” is both a study and an homage to California freeway culture.
“The project started spontaneously,” Hill recalled. “Driving one day, I was intrigued by a certain freeway underpass. I pulled over, got my camera out and began shooting. At first I was fascinated by the heft of it all. But then I gradually discovered the minute, even delicate, parts of the whole: the specific textures of concrete, the erasure marks covering graffiti, and the remnants of bills removed from the walls - marks left behind by people and nature that are driven over and through (and therefore likely ignored) in a city inundated with moving vehicles. Taking these photos became a deeply meditative experience for me.”
Hill continued: “I think freeway underpasses represent much more than the connecting dots of an urban environment. They’re markers for an ongoing effort to bring a measure of order to the chaos of modern life. They lay bare particular esthetic or social phenomena, such as covering graffiti, a practice which I consider repressive.”
Commenting on Hill’s art, painter and Black Maria curator Sam Saga said his first impression of the photos in the “Under a Freeway” series was that they were paintings.
“It takes close examination before you realize you’re looking at photographs,” Saga explained. “I think Chris’ work is powerful not only because of its documentary attention to detail, but its subtle poetics and the social drama that unfolds through the individual photos and the series as a whole. You’ll know, soon enough, that a wall of concrete on a stretch of freeway underpass is but a portal to the stories teeming behind the facade.”