Lisa Hilli

Birds of a Feather celebrates the resilience of Papua New Guinean women through the story of Dame Meg Taylor, the first woman from Papua New Guinea to receive a degree from the University of Melbourne Law School and most recently Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General. Composed of images of the feathers of PNG’s national bird, ‘kumul’ (bird of paradise), the artwork honours a significant figure who continues to inspire and empower women to navigate their role in contemporary PNG society. Accompanied by the calls of the birds of paradise, Hilli embeds Taylor’s voice into a series of digital prints that weave through the cloisters of Old Quad, culminating in a major fabric installation in Treasury Gallery. 

Commissioned by the Potter Foundation, University of Melbourne for Collective Unease Exhibition, curated by Samantha Comte and Jacquline Doughty.

Collective Unease Exhibition – 22 September 2022 – 02 June 2023

Australian War Memorial Commission (2018-2020)

At the risk of their own lives, the F.M.I. Sisters dedicated themselves to providing locally grown produce to Australian, European and Unserdeutsch children who were held captive at Ramale prisoner of war camp for almost three years. As an Australian War Memorial commissioned artist, I chose to highlight war histories that relate to women, in particular Papua New Guinean women. Photographed inside the liberated camp in 1945, twelve F.M.I. Sisters are veiled and adorned with flowers that reference some of the seventeen nationalities among the 300 civilians whom they helped keep alive at Ramale during the Second World War. Forty-five black cinctures honour the efforts and make visible the names of the F.M.I. Sisters.

Media & Reviews

‘It was a real labour of love’ Australian War Memorial Blog

Reflections on Lisa Hilli’s keynote for the ‘Sharing Pacific Lives in Australia’ workshop, The New Outrigger

Header image: Detail of 45 cinctures. Cotton and wool yarn. 4 meters x 4cm.

Sisterhood Lifeline 2018, latex ink on wallpaper, inkjet prints on cotton rag, office partitions, iMac, office telephone with vocal recordings, books, Post It Notes, pen, swivel chair. Exhibition photography Markus Ravik and Carl Warner 2018.

Sisterhood Lifeline explores the visibility and invisibility of black women’s bodies in cultural institutions in Australia. A creative response to institutional racism, the works were photographed in Lisa’s former workplace of Museums Victoria. Sisterhood lifeline is a phrased borrowed from Areej Nur, a Melbourne based writer and media producer.

Commissioned by Léuli Eshranghi for The Commute exhibition at Institute of Modern Art.

A Tinata Tuna (Tolaisphere) – A glossary text written by Lisa Hilli & Léuli Eshraghi

Exhibited

Transits & Returns, Vancouver Art Gallery 2019-20

The Commute, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane 2018-19

Media & Reviews

UN PROJECTS

Runway 

Read more about this work.

Acknowledgement

To the women who graciously agreed to be part of this work, Namila Benson, Patrice Capogreco, Kate Golding, and Shantel Weatheral, thank you.

Solo Exhibition Blak Dot Gallery 2018

Trade beads or slave beads were used globally by European colonists as a mechanism for the exploitation of labour and goods. Glass beads and other imported materials were also used historically by missionaries and merchant traders for building rapport with indigenous people across Papua New Guinea. Through her solo exhibition, artist Lisa Hilli explores the impacts and transformative effect that trade beads had upon her own people the Tolai / Gunantuna, during a precarious and hostile era of the late 1800’s and how materiality became a language, which was understood and valued by all.

Media & Reviews

Dress Code Review – Artlink, Ann Finegan

Exhibition & Artist interview – Blak Dot Gallery

Selected Artworks Exhibited

2021-2022 Observance Buxton Contemporary

2019 Capital Ballarat Foto Biennale

2018 Dress Code Museum of Brisbane

2018 Solo show Blak Dot Gallery

Acknowledgment

Collective of labourer’s & beaders: Cathy Hilli, Léuli Eshraghi, Eddy Carroll, Pauline Vetuna, Kevin Murray, Kim Kruger, Savanna Kruger, Kalissa Alexeyeff, Travis Cox, Kirsten Lyttle, Aunty Lila Heimann, Tray Hudson, Gina Ropiha, Talava Tuhipa-Turner, Jacinta Crocker.

Thank you to Kimba Thompson, Blak Dot Gallery and Testing Grounds for supporting the development of this work during an artist residency called Trade Stories  in January 2018. A part of the research of this exhibition was supported by a Museums Victoria 1854 scholarship in 2016.