Debbie Hill

Pianola Raum, mehrteilige Instalation, 2004 - 2005

„Die Arbeit mit Pianola Rollen entwickelte sich aus meinem Interesse für Multiples und Wiederholungen. Die Pianola Rollen reflektieren die mit religiösen Aktivitäten verbundene Wiederholung. Es ist egal, in welchen Typ Pianola die Rollen gesteckt werden, sie spielen immer die gleiche Melodie. Genau so wie es keinen Unterschied macht, ob man eine katholische Kirche in Australien oder eine in Deutschland besucht; das Ritual und der Prozeß wird grundlegend der gleiche sein.

Die Verwendung der alten Rechnerrollen (I AM) ist aus den essentiell gleichen Gründen geschehen....wiederhole wiederhole wiederhole immer und immer wieder.”

Debbie Hill, Januar 2006

ARTIST STATEMENT

Over the last 2-3 years I have been looking at why people believe in some form of religion or spirituality, and have as a consequence been producing work that looks at belief from the view of someone with no religious affiliations. I have often been seen as a religious person because my artworks deal with religion, but I am more interested in the politics, learning strategies and rituals that go hand in hand with these beliefs.

Working with Pianola rolls evolved from my interest in multiples and repetition. The Pianola roles reflect the repetition that is involved with religious activity. It doesn't matter what type of Pianola the rolls are put in, they will still play the same tune! Just as it doesn't matter whether you attend say a Catholic Church in Australia and one in Germany the ritual and process will be fundamentally the same. The use of the old calculator rolls (I AM) have been used for essentially the same reason …repeat repeat repeat over and over again.

The use of blackboard paint on the Pianola rolls points to my own learning at school, when blackboards and chalk were the core writing materials used by teachers, where information would be written or drawn and then erased, this would happen of course repetitively until myself and the other students had learnt what we were supposed to. Accordingly I see those with a religious upbringing as having been taught Church lessons/ritual in a similar way to my own school lessons, repeat, erase, repeat, erase until the performance of rituals and understanding of texts was so ingrained that these tasks can be executed without deliberation.

The images themselves are drawn from old photographs and books that I used at school for study (e.g. biology) juxtaposed with images and words from religious texts including Michelangelo's ‘Last Judgement' and Da Vinci's series of anatomical drawings. The text on the calculator rolls serves many purposes, including emulating words from the bible, the words used by New Zealand artist Colin McCahon and my belief that society has an expectation that you must be someone therefore I AM……

I anticipate that the viewers of this work will also bring to it there own thoughts and ideas which I believe are an important element to not only this work, but too much artwork in general. Enjoy!!! Debbie Hill 2006

Die Arbeit mit Pianola Rollen entwickelte sich aus meinem Interesse für Multiples und Wiederholungen. Die Pianola Rollen reflektieren die mit religiösen Aktivitäten verbundene Wiederholung. Es ist egal, in welchen Typ Pianola die Rollen

gesteckt werden, sie spielen immer die gleiche Melodie. Genau so wie es keinen Unterschied macht, ob man eine katholische Kirche in Australien oder eine in Deutschland besucht; das Ritual und der Prozeß wird grundlegend der gleiche sein.

Die Verwendung der alten Rechnerrollen (I AM) ist aus den essentiell gleichen Gründen geschehen....wiederhole wiederhole wiederhole immer und immer wieder.

Working with Pianola rolls evolved from my interest in multiples and repetition. The Pianola roles reflect the repetition that is involved with religious activity. It doesn't matter what type of Pianola the rolls are put in, they will still play the same tune! Just as it doesn't matter whether you attend say a Catholic Church in Australia and one in Germany the ritual and process will be fundamentally the same. The use of the old calculator rolls (I AM) have been used for essentially the same reason …repeat repeat repeat over and over again.