Inherit
Bronwyn Hill
- Sitter: Self Portrait
- Medium: Oil on Canvas
- Dimensions: 91cm x 91cm
- Representation: Lethbridge Gallery
- Categories: Female artist
About the artwork
In this confronting self-portrait, Bronwyn Hill features herself with three physical injuries, an arrow through the calf, a head injury and a knocked-out tooth. These are three physical scars Hill’s parents carry from their youth, the three she has known about since childhood.
Hill sits casually, absorbed in her phone, seemingly unaware of the three identical wounds she is carrying. The physical scars stand in for emotional ones, an observation on intergenerational trauma and what we inherit from the people who raised us.
In recent years, Hill has been learning more about her parents’ lives, most notably her father’s experience as one of the Forgotten Australians – 500,000 Australian children taken and put into institutional care before 1989. The portrait brings forth the idea that the experiences of our family shape us without our knowing. The scene is darkly playful and deeply personal, equal parts tenderness and reckoning.
About the artist
Bronwyn Hill is a Brisbane-based painter known for her hyperreal oil paintings, rich with poetic narrative and subtle symbolism. Her practice centres on portraiture and figurative work, often exploring self-analysis and introspection. She is a former Brisbane Portrait Prize prize-winner and Lester Prize finalist and was recently commissioned to paint the official portrait of former Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
