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Dan Hillian’s Surrealist Drawings Inspired by Victorian Etchings

Victorian art and literature is characterized by Romantic poetry and Gothic horror. London-based artist Dan Hillian plays with these tensions to create contemporary ink drawings and Photoshop collages animated by fantastical landscapes and uncanny events, all connected by exacting geometries. In an interview with Creative-Mapping, Hillian discusses his desire to "transport people to somewhere a little bit mysterious." This, he certainly achieves, with exploding shapes that radiate out from a central figure. The protagonists of Hillian's images approach the supernatural, especially those that seem to morph into plants and animals before the viewer's eye. However, the transitions are also clues to the figures' personalities, fears and desires.

Victorian art and literature is characterized by Romantic poetry and Gothic horror. London-based artist Dan Hillian plays with these tensions to create contemporary ink drawings and Photoshop collages animated by fantastical landscapes and uncanny events, all connected by exacting geometries. In an interview with Creative-Mapping, Hillian discusses his desire to “transport people to somewhere a little bit mysterious.” This, he certainly achieves, with exploding shapes that radiate out from a central figure. The protagonists of Hillian’s images approach the supernatural, especially those that seem to morph into plants and animals before the viewer’s eye. However, the transitions are also clues to the figures’ personalities, fears and desires.

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