EJ Hill

"What I didn't know was that the gallery walls would be lined with objects: paintings, drawings, neons. The immediate vibe was one of quietude. In front of one wall was a long wooden church pew; behind the pew was a "room" constructed out of pipe and drape. Burgundy fabric hung from ceiling to floor, and the curtains were gently pulled apart, forming a subtle opening."

"The gallery has those beautiful old wooden floors that still manage to grace a few New York buildings. Oak planks burnished, bleached, and faded over decades. Creaking. Soft. The church pew had been positioned such that if you sat in it you faced the paintings, which meant your back would be to the performance. Before much had happened, it was already unclear where to look and just what kind of aesthetic experience was being offered."

"I started to slowly walk around the perimeter of the gallery, respectfully looking at the modest, domestically scaled paintings, all of which were variations on a roller-coaster motif that included sentimental and conventional signs of joy: flowers, sunshine, a sunny palette that Hill's been mining. In this show the palette shifted from the artist's familiar Pepto-Bismol pink to slightly more somber shades, of saffron, eggplant, and rose; the colors had a touch of Bob Thompson about them, blocky flat shapes cohering into apparitions."

An endurance performance took place in downtown Manhattan where EJ Hill knelt eight hours a day, five days a week inside a curtained enclosure at 52 Walker. The gallery combined modest paintings, drawings, and neons with a long wooden church pew positioned so viewers faced the paintings and turned their backs to the performance. Burnished oak floors, creaking and soft, contributed to a quiet, contemplative atmosphere. Burgundy curtains formed a subtle opening that suggested an interior presence even when Hill was not visible. The painted works used a roller-coaster motif and shifted from bright pink toward saffron, eggplant, and rose tones. A prior Hill endurance piece at the Hammer Museum involved standing on a plinth in a small glass-doored room without leaving for breaks.

Read at Artforum