Lisa Hilli. Photo: Nik Harrison Lisa Hilli
Lisa Hilli (b. 1979) Born in Papua New Guinea, Hilli lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. Lisa Hilli is a contemporary artist whose work was featured in the the Framer Framed group exhibition Embodied Spaces (2015), curated by Christine Eyene.
Lisa Hilli graduated from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT University) in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in media arts. Her work explores and celebrates the complexities and issues of cross-cultural identity through the use of video installation, community filmmaking and, more recently, weaving. Inspired predominantly by her Papua New Guinean heritage, Hilli uses her art practice as a process to gain knowledge about cultural histories and maintain what she inherited by applying these traditions through a contemporary context. Through her practice she prioritises indigenous knowledge and matrilineal systems to subvert colonial and Western histories contained within ethnographic and archival material. The representation of the black female body and the politics of hair are ongoing themes that allow her to explore, combine and disrupt the confines of photographic and textile practices. Through gender discourses she often portrays the theme of visibility and invisibility through landscape and social environments.
She also co-founded the Pacific Women’s Weaving Circle (PWWC) in 2010, and was co-creative director and co-facilitator of Story Weavers: Pacific Youth Filmmaking Project, for the Contemporary Pacific Arts Festival in 2013. In 2019, she is currently an artist residency in Finland for the Helsinki International Artist Programme (HIAP).
SOLO-EXHIBITIONS
2010
Just Like Home
Australian National Tour: Brisbane Powerhouse, Queensland; Colac Otways Performing Arts & Cultural Centre, Victoria; Darwin Community Arts, Northern Territory; Elcho Island Arts & Crafts, Arnhem land, Northern Territory; Nexus Multicultural Arts Centre, Adelaide, Australië
GROUP SHOWS
2024
Points of View, Artistic and Scientific Perspectives on German Colonial History in the Western Pacific
Hafenmuseum, Bremen, Germany
…
2015
Embodied Spaces
Framer Framed, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2014
Where We’re At! Other Voices on Gender
BOZAR Centre For Fine Arts, Brussel, België
Meleponi Pasifika
Indonesian Contemporary Arts Network, Jogyakarta, Indonesië
2013
BILAS – TSS CHAI, Melbourne NOW
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australië
Meleponi Pasifika, Contemporary Pacific Arts Festival
Roslyn Smorgon Gallery, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne, Australië
Symbiosis: Living Through Art
Australia Council for the Arts, Rover Thomas Auditorium, Sydney, Australië
The Other APT – Cybertribe
Indigenous Online Gallery
2011
Mis-Design – Pacific Women’s Weaving Circle
Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Australië
2010
How does a network activate a public? – Pacific Women’s Weaving Circle
The South Project, West Wing Gallery, Melbourne, Australië
- Website Lisa Hilli
Links
Exhibitions
