"Art Is The Only Thing We Can Get Away With": Susan Hiller at the Tate Britain

A few days ago I went to the Tate Britain to see an artist who I had heard of but knew very little about, Susan Hiller. I went not knowing what to expect, only knowing her for her series called 'Rough Seas' all about her collection of British postcards from around the coast of, yes you guessed it, rough seas!
I was absolutely blown away by this exhibition and loved how provocative and thought provoking each installation was.

Susan Hiller has lived and worked in Britain for over 30 years and is one of the most influential artists of her generation. The exhibition provided a focus on a selection of her key works, from assembled postcard images made in the 1970s to her pioneering mixed-media installations and video projections. The exhibition really highlighted Hiller's interest in the subconscious or unconscious mind, whether in the form of dreams and memories or as supernatural or visionary experiences.

My favourite piece was definitely 'Monument 1980-1' which displayed forty-one photographs of memorial plaques from George Frederic Watts‘s Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman’s Park, London. Each plaque commemorates someone who died while performing an act of heroism and really got you contemplating the lives and heroics of these people depicted by their memorials.

The soundtrack, that accompanied the photographs were placed upon a park bench set in front of the series of plaques, is Hiller’s own voice, addressing heroism, death, memory and representation. Sitting on the bench to listen makes you an integral part of the installation. She talked about how a portrait will live on much longer than your body and that these plaques kept alive the people they were remembering, some decades longer than they actually were alive for. It was a really touching, thoughtful piece.

Another brilliant installation was From the Freud Museum 1191-6 where Hiller uses traditional archaeological collection boxes to display an object that she has collected with a text of her own choice to go with the object. Hiller comments on this work saying 'I deal with fragments of everyday life, and I'm suggesting that a fragmentary view is all we've got.' It was fascinating to see what objects she put with what text and why, and how this comparison created a new meaning, life and use for the object.

Witness, 2000 is an installation first seen through the frame of its entrance: an open 'forest' of silvery wires and dangling objects, which I thought to be orbs at first glance, filling the top half of a beautifully lit room. As you enter the room a dim, only faintly perceptible hum of talk emanates from the space and as you enter the room further you see that this hum of talk is coming from flat round speakers, each hanging at the end of the wire.
When you listen to an individual earphone, taking it in from the whispering ambient sound, you hear a single speaker telling a story. Each earpiece is of a different speaker from different countries and so the room is full of a great range of languages all telling a story of UFO sightings they have encountered.

The experience was beautiful. Just standing in a beautifully glistening room surrounded by just out of sound whispers each retelling a story of something they have experienced. I absolutely loved it.

So I am urging EVERYONE to go see this exhibition at the Tate Britain, you have till the 15th May, so hop to it! It's definitely worth it. But to get your taste buds tingling for it, here are a few more images of some of the other works from the exhibition that I loved and that you can go and experience for yourself!