Nicole Jean Hill
Bio
Critters
As our subjugation of nature appears to have irreversibly isolated the human from the nonhuman, I explore the kinship we seek in the animal world. In Towards a Philosophy of Nature, Robert P. Harrison suggests that, "precisely at the moment when we have overcome the earth and become unearthly in our modes of dwelling...we insist on our kinship with the animal world. We suffer these days from a new form of collective anxiety: species loneliness." The creatures in my photographs perform various functions for their human counterparts: food, companionship, ornament. Sometimes these functions intersect. Through an examination of animals and our relationship to them, I address the ambiguous hierarchy of imposition and tenderness.
Reclamation - Ten Views of a Nebraska Landfill
Through my landscape images, I attempt to recognize a control that we assert over land with subject matter that is neither spectacular nor extraordinary. Inspired by the woodblock print series 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Japanese artist Hokusai, I photographed the Douglas County landfill outside of Omaha, Nebraska over a two-year period. The landfill functioned as a geographic landmark that helped me navigate the commute from home to work and back. Nestled in the rolling hills of the countryside, the landfill mimicked the natural landscape when seen from certain vantage points, while revealing itself as a manmade heap from others.
