Aaron Li-Hill’s New Show Depicts ‘Perils of a New World’

In his recent show at The Hall in Brooklyn, Aaron Li-Hill tackles climate change in his visceral mixed-media works. “Perils of a New World” collects both handheld pieces and massive new installations from the Canadian artist. The show also features works fro ma collaborative photographic series with Mathais Wasik.

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To Face the Future and Tethered to My Position (Collaborative Photo series with Mathais Wasik @mathiaswasik) Human Element and Tethered to the System (Sculptural works) • This series was the largest experiment and challenge to my comfort zone in works for Perils of a New World. Coincidentally it felt the most natural. It started from wanting to confront my own situation in regards to Climate Change. Through all my research and thinking on the issue, I found myself somewhat paralized by the fact that I am so subsumed within the systems that are generating carbon within the atmosphere. That no matter your position, you are inexorably linked to capitalism, which in reality is the driving force behind the position we are putting our planet in. This reminded me of a quote by Fredrich Jameson “..It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism..” I kept seeing my hand as though morphed into something monstrous, something caged, that no matter my actions I was tied to the structures of society, causing this global crisis. These sculptures are the visual manifestation of this tension. I further saw my efforts to mitigate this damage as something humanizing, to make this sharp reality softer, which lead me to create the clay “human” hand. Because this series was so personal to fully realize this piece, I needed to be in it. Through collaborating with @mathiaswasik for this photographic series we were able to capture this tension so fully and I’m very thankful to him. Thank you to @julia_borowicz for styling the shoot. • Come see the work in person today between 12-6pm. It’s the last weekend to see the [email protected] 9 Hall st. Brooklyn

A post shared by Li-Hill (@li_hill) on Nov 17, 2019 at 9:16am PST

“When trying to comprehend the origins of this issue I wanted to speak about how as a society we have gotten to this critical spot,” the artist says. “One point that I wanted to emphasis was how the western world, being the main proponents of Climate Changing factors, have historically had a hostile and dominating stance towards nature and many other cultures. When thinking about the invasion of the ‘New World’ it was a domination of not only the land but the people and their beliefs. Human civilization has spent thousands of years at the receiving end of natural forces and our perceived oppression morphed into callus dominance as our technological and scientific might grew. We are now entering a New World standing on bones of countless species and cultures from the past. Acknowledging this history and our place within the systems of this planet is crucial in blazing any possible trails forward.”

See more of his work on his site and The Hall’s page.