Parris Patton's entry into the
2019 Raw Vision short film competition
The intricate masking tape and mixed media sculptures of Willard Hill (b. 1934) draw from a lifetime spent in the small town of Manchester, Tennessee.
A cook since the age of seventeen, Hill began making sculptures over twenty years ago after returning home debilitated from a hospital stay. Primarily composed of masking tape, Hill’s sculptures also utilized plastic bags, wire, toothpicks, rocks and a plethora of other found materials. Whatever a piece reminded him of as he worked, that’s what it became and soon every surface in his small home was covered in evocative gems.
In the mere two years since Willard Hill received his first ever solo exhibition at the age of 82, his work has been exhibited by The Good Luck Gallery in Paris and New York, and his position within the African-American art diaspora was cemented with his inclusion in Reclamation! Pan-African Works from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, The Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA. Manchester is “just a little town,” notes Hill. “Nothing like this has ever happened around here. Now I’m somebody.”
