B3- Artist Conversation - Hillary

Artist: Hillary
Exhibition: Roll Call
Media: Resin, wire
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Gatov Gallery West
Website: NA
Instagram: NA

Hillary is on the path to graduate next semester in the Sculpture BFA program. When Hillary was in middle school she started becoming more and more aware that while she was in class she couldn’t quite process all the information that every other student could do. That is when she discovered that she has an Auditory Processing Disorder. This means that Hillary can still hear everything clearly but may process it a little bit slower. She described it as gathering about 80% of a conversation then the other 20% gets jumbled. So Hillary wanted to explore the idea of processing disorder as well as the anatomy of the body. It takes a lot of vulnerability to be open about the difficulties that she faces everyday. However, with lots of therapy and some lip reading, she is overcoming the auditory processing disorder.
Hillary created a 4D sculpture of the cochlea out of 3D printed resin with an embedded speaker in it and sodded wire. The sculpture is pretty true to size and is supported by string and wire hung from the ceiling. She used a clear resin and grey wiring to represent the nerves that are actually grey matter. It is a continuous piece that is curved around like the shape of the inner ear. The print itself took her 8 hours and the whole piece together took about roughly 3 weeks to create, including all the sound and wiring.
This sculpture is mainly focused around Hillarys Auditory Processing Disorder. The idea behind it is that, it is the part of the body that understands all of your frequencies and the pitch that happens. Then where it connects to the wire is the part where the nerve connects to the brain. Hillary was also interested in this because she thought it was similar to a conch shell; in how you can hear the ocean and ambient noises. She stated that she really struggles with ambient noise because it's hard to synthesize information that's going on. The underwater sound mimics the ocean, which is an ambient noise, and she has created that through the wiring and into the cochlea.
I really loved the message behind this gallery. When I first walked into the exhibit I was a bit confused as to how each piece all flowed together, but after reading the description I thought it was displayed very nicely. The idea behind Roll Call is a collection of thoughts, questions, reflections, exploration of vulnerability and present-day issues, and more that forms a community as they create. After learning more about Hillary's piece, I thought her work brought these words to life. It really exemplifies the concept of vulnerability and pushed the experience of her everyday difficulties. The whole exhibit made me reflect on my own life and own questions; and I believe that is exactly what art should do.  ​