About Susan Hiller

Susan Hiller was born in the USA in 1940. In a distinguished career of more than 30 years, she has drawn upon sources as diverse as dreams, postcards, Punch & Judy shows, archives, horror movies, UFO sightings and narratives of 'near death experiences' to make innovative and seductive works out of ephemeral, sometimes seemingly unimportant items, works that involve the audience as witness to the lacunae and contradictions in our collective cultural life. Her ground-breaking work in sound, multi-screen video and other media is widely acknowledged to have been an important influence on younger British artists.

Susan Hiller graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1961 and went on to postgraduate study at Tulane University in New Orleans with a National Science Foundation fellowship in anthropology. After conducting fieldwork in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, she became uncomfortable with academic anthropology's adherence to scientific claims of objectivity and decided to become an artist.

Hiller is often called an 'artist's artist' whose work has been recognized by major museums world-wide. A recently-published book, The Provisional Texture of Reality, includes some of her most significant talks, interviews, and essays on other artists. A major retrospective of her work will be held in 2011 at the Tate and other major venues.