Georgie Hill interview - Sirens

Georgie Hill talks with Superpartner’s Co-Director, Derrick Cherrie, about mythological themes, power, agency and the role of colour, chance and experiment, in her latest exhibition Sirens.

Portrait of Georgie Hill in her Auckland studio. Photo: Florian Habicht

Inspired by the enigmatic and alluring figure of the Siren, Georgie Hill's work interlaces themes of beauty and peril with a deeply considered approach to the application of paint and the materials on which she works. This results in paintings that offer surprising sensory experiences; a depth of feeling. Reading and research is an important part of Hill’s practice. Hill touches on her diverse literary, art historical, and popular cultural interests, and how ideas are filtered through, what is for her, a very intuitive approach to painting.  

Superpartner: When talking about the works in this exhibition you have expressed an interest in the relationship between song and binding, often associated with the Siren as an ‘entangler’. With the title of your new show and the works themselves deeply engaging with the Siren myth, can you elaborate on how Sirens, song, and abstract imagery interact in your paintings? What draws you to the figure of the Siren in your artistic practice?

Georgie Hill: Historically, the mythological figure of the Siren has represented both the dangers of seduction and the power of song as a binding force. Central to the myth of the deadly siren’s song are ideas of control and allure, power and agency, beauty and peril, positioning song as a force that can overwhelm reason. The sirens of Greek mythology influenced the concept of mermaids as beautiful, seductive singers that came to be depicted as half-woman/half-fish in the Christian era. The Siren/Mermaid figure appears in literature and art, from Homer’s Odyssey (circa 8th century BCE) through painting history and pop cultural appearances in animated film and advertising etc. The Siren/Mermaid is a creature of duality able to move between two worlds.

Georgie Hill, Sirens (5), 2024, acrylic on canvas, 1200 x 1100mm. Photo: Sam Harnett

SP: The paintings evoke strong physical and emotional responses; there is a sort of visceral nervous energy about them. I can't help but connect this quality with the phrase 'Melter of Limbs,'  which you used in the titles of three pieces in this exhibition. You have mentioned this phrase comes from Anne Carson's translation of Sappho, describing the bittersweet impact of eros. Could you tell us how you see eros in relation to your paintings or even inhabiting the act of painting itself?

GH: I have a long-standing interest in literary and artistic portrayals of female figures from Greek and Roman mythology, and the enduring archetypes or tropes that continue to influence contemporary culture. My thoughts about the nature of the Siren as both alluring and dangerous became overlayed with a re-reading of Anne Carson’s book, ‘Eros the Bittersweet,’ which is about the paradoxical nature of romantic love, examining eros as a simultaneous experience of pleasure and pain. Her analysis of Sappho's work sees eros/desire as “… organized around a radiant absence – to represent eros as lack.” Sappho is one of the few female voices to survive from the ancient Greek world, and I reference ‘melter of limbs’ in my titles as a gesture simultaneously to Sappho and her translator, Carson, to connect my paintings to what I was reading and thinking about at the time. Some of these ideas filter through into the paintings themselves, but the actual painting process is very intuitive. For me the imagery is evocative of boundaries and edges, containment or holding of movement or energy… of transition and transformation. There is a sense of explosive energy or violence. It also relates to the sea, derived from shell-forms and net type structures that are fragmented, repeated or broken down. I work to capture a vitality in the paintings, and there is something fascinating in Sappho’s idea of desire as a “radiant absence” …a radiant absence that drives a search, that could perhaps be related to the process of painting - an ongoing search for a feeling, some kind of ‘sense-making’ or resonance.

Georgie Hill, Siren / melter of limbs (3), 2024, watercolour on incised paper, 590 x 550 mm (detail) Photo: Sam Hartnett

SP: How do you think through and approach colour, and how do you go about choosing the colours for your paintings? Terms like vibration and energy often come up when discussing the optical effects of your colour interactions and paint alignments. Are the two related?

GH: I’m interested in finding a meeting place between graphic boldness - the qualities of an image which act to convey information (such as a scientific diagram), and gestural or sensual mark-making that carries emotion and atmosphere. I employ a restricted colour palette, for years I worked primarily in vermillion and cerulean blue (with black and occasional flesh tones). I was attracted to the way these colours interacted and the symbolic use of red and blue – influenced by paintings such as the frescos of Fra Angelico (for their emotional interiority and spiritual power) through to medical diagrams in books such as ‘The Concise Gray’s Anatomy’. I became captivated by the interaction between indigo and magenta in the development of the paintings that make up ‘Sirens’. Magenta is a very vital and active colour, whether it is painted in diffuse veils, staining smears or more pure intensity, it has a strong physicality. Magenta is not part of the visible light spectrum, there is no wavelength of light for magenta, we perceive it only when the short and long cone cells in our retina pick up a signal from pure red and pure blue light. The human brain literally makes up magenta.

Georgie Hill, Sirens (2), 2024, watercolour on incised paper, 590 x 550 mm Photo: Sam Hartnett

SP: During a recent visit to your studio, I noticed the intriguing way you had arranged your painted canvas remnants, some of which you collage into larger works. These pieces appeared to be arranged almost like an inventory or an ancient library of scrolls. It was clear that you work on more pieces than you incorporate in finished paintings. Can you share how this method of working evolved and the role these remnants play for you?

GH: My practice involves making numerous paintings on unstretched canvas and watercolour paper, as well as utilising off-cuts of these materials and sometimes painting on both sides. I like to make use of everything, finding potential and inspiration in leftover resources rather than discarding them. This approach gives me the freedom to experiment, develop, and respond to chance and intuition. I can capture something very direct and alive in the work, rather than overworking a single painting. I embrace the chance shapes and edges of found/off-cut materials, which influences aspects of the finished work. The process of collage brings forth unanticipated juxtapositions of imagery.

Studio detail. Photo: Sam Hartnett

SP: Could you walk me through how you assemble the collage elements of your works, particularly the role of placement and relationships between individual pieces? Also, how do you manage and incorporate works from different periods into your current projects?

GH: The finished works often go through multiple transformations as I place various paintings together, often sparking further paintings and combinations, before adhering the chosen pieces together. The placement and relationship between pieces and edges is crucial. I spend a lot of time with each work, looking, thinking, and moving parts around. Many of the paintings aren’t incorporated into a finished work but may be in the future. Paintings from different time periods, sometimes years apart can come together. I have many canvas pieces rolled up and stacked in such a way that I can identify and access them easily while I’m in the process of working.

Georgie Hill, Siren / melter of limbs (1), 2024, acrylic on canvas, 800 x 750 mm Photo: Sam Hartnett

SP: Given that immediacy and play are key aspects of your process, how do you find the right balance between experimenting and bringing a piece to resolution?

GH: Experimentation has led to key aspects of the work, such as mark-making through manipulation of the support materials themselves; the incision-making process on the watercolour paper, and the folding processes used on the unstretched canvas. I like to keep a simplicity or restraint to what I bring into play in the studio, working to push these materials into new territory, such as using a limited colour palette. I know instinctively when a work has reached a resolution (there could be multiple paths to reach this) – it resonates in a way that is exciting to me, either through a sense of balance or interesting tension. This feeling has to hold up over time, looking at the work and living with it in the studio before the pieces are adhered  together.  

SP: Your collaged layers perform both additive and extractive functions – obscuring and concealing parts of the underlying painting while inserting tightly contained, carefully placed gestures and energies. Could you share more about these elements and their role in your overall paintings?

GH: The collage pieces are suggestive of a microscopic or exploded view of the underlying painting, yet simultaneously they obscure or reduce clarity. Desire can be engendered by the partial view, creating a need to decipher or disentangle the imagery. At times the juxtapositions of gestures and energies blur or soften, dissolving the boundary points and edges. At other times there is a starker more confronting contrast or crossover point.

Georgie Hill ‘Sirens’, Superpartner Gallery, Kā-Muriwai Arrowtown,  Tāhuna Queenstown Lakes District, 8 December 2024 to 26 January 2025.