ADAM HILL

This show attempts to unearth and debunk ALL stereotypes that STILL prevail amongst the 'commoner'. We continue to hear many an uttering like... 'but you don't LOOK Aboriginal', 'she's much prettier than MOST', 'what percentage of Aboriginal are you?' and my personal favourite...'oh yes...you DO have that type of forehead'. May this exhibition be dedicated to ALL of those diaphanous beings. Many of whom hold authority in the film industry where of course... such scrutinisation prevents many a worthy talent ever reaching their aspirations of representing their ancestry and henceforth dispelling the industry stereotype.

- Adam Hill, 2010


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Adam Hill is a driven man. His latest indigenous exhibition’s title piece, “Half-caste 10 in the morning” is more than a piece of cute, conversational lounge-room art about a casting cattle call: it's a timeless message-stick pregnant with meaning.

Its satire is clever, witty and intelligent. And it's also a discussion piece of social significance that will enliven any smart dinner party.

In an ochre, black and gold, parched landscape, “a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges, [and] of droughts …” as Dorothea McKella aptly put it, a thirsty lizard watches foreboding clouds with dark linings, themselves a symbol of big-brother government, says Mr Hill.

A black, Colgate-white-smile, stilettoed, bikini-clad, pseudo-model holds a scorecard “10”, mocking whitemen’s methods of categorising women. Her Medusa-like hair**, livid with black serpentine locks, exhumes ancient Grecian mythology of a girl with snake hair whose stare turned men to stone: only a mirror could save a man’s gaze from his own certain death. So Hill’s mirrored text, “Wanted, Extras … characteristic skinny legs, broadish nose etc …” is made more poignant for its eulogy about our own modern myths.

It is at once a startling, thought-provoking, myth-busting exhibition that shatters shibboleths.

And it is made more relevant given recent media comments by a mentally-moribund footy commentariat on the role of the Indigenous in our society.

- Andrew Woodhouse, 2010