Susan Hiller: Dedicated to the Unknown

“Dedicated to the Unknown”, curated by Andrew Price, is the first solo exhibition by artist Susan Hiller since her passing in 2019. With a multimedia practice spanning over five decades, Hiller’s distinctive body of work takes many forms, including experimental group investigations in the 1970s, painting, photography, sculpture, and groundbreaking audiovisual installations.

Hiller was committed to examining our culture’s ambivalent fascination with phenomena that lie beyond the boundaries of everyday understanding. The selected works explore ideas often seen as alternative or esoteric, marginalised or dismissed: extrasensory perception; belief in mystical powers; the significance of dreams; practices of automatic writing; and collective experiences of subconscious, unconscious, and paranormal activity.

The power of her work does not lie in either advocating for or refuting the truth of such phenomena, but in presenting these practices, beliefs, and experiences as ‘social facts’. She excavates hidden aspects of culture to suggest that something mysterious lies beneath the surface of what first appears easily understood — life is full of unknowns.