Adrian Hill, landscape architect and artist, was born in Montreal, Canada in 1982. He is the brother of Justin Hill and first son of Bruce and Helen Hill, who encouraged his interest in art and supported him in his studies.
Hill attended high school in Stanmore, Sydney. His art teacher Neville Dawson had a great influence on Hill’s artistic focus and the two remained friends. In 2004 Hill received a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of New South Wales. His theoretical training and knowledge was complemented by work experience with artist/landscape architect Anton James in Sydney. In 2008 Hill was an associate in Terras Landscape Architects in Newcastle.
After moving to Newcastle, Adrian Hill created one major artwork and coordinated several others. Second Nature (2008), Hill’s first significant temporary public artwork, developed in collaboration with Nicola Xavier, was included in the public art project 'Back to the City’. Taking its name and inspiration from American author Michael Pollan’s Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (1991), the Hill and Xavier piece made use of a robust, large-framed structure onto which was stretched geo-fabric bearing a stenciled William Morris flower pattern around lines from Pollan’s text. Hessian matting was implanted with wheatgrass seeds and hung vertically. The wheatgrass was watered and germinated up the wall, evolving throughout the three week exhibition period. Hill’s insights into landscape remediation played a key role in the creation of this work, which he says was “about developing a use for a dysfunctional space and giving meaning or creating 'place’.” (2008 pers. comm.) Second Nature received a highly commended prize at the completion of the exhibition; the site is expected to become a community public garden and a memorial to Australian horticulturalist Judy Cuppaidge.
The most significant of Hill’s curated exhibitions to date is 'Small Places’, a temporary art series instigated in 2005 to focus on Newcastle’s City Centre, and in this respect not dissimilar to Steffen Lehmann’s 'Back to the City’.
At the time of writing, Adrian Hill was active in Newcastle’s Australian Architecture Association chapter; was chair of the Trees in Newcastle (TIN) committee, a Hunter based non-government organisation and community environmental organisation; and sat on the Newcastle City Council’s Public Art Advisory Committee (2008-10). He was also involved in the development of a temporary architectural exhibition space within disused shop-fronts in Newcastle’s central business district.
- Writers:
- Potoczny, Evelyn
De Lorenzo, Dr Catherine
- Date written:
- 2008
- Last updated:
- 2011
