In From Where I Stand, I combine visual typologies of human bodies as Metagraphs with multiple overlays of tessellated geometric patterns derived from ancient and contemporary cultures, which use geometry as a visual language to express a higher order of truth that both our perceptions and our words fail to express. In this combination, I am seeking to unite two visual languages to express my belief that our perception of duality is inaccurate; instead, everything is united in a resonating matrix of energy. I call my work Metagraphs because, like a photograph, which is a recording of visible light, my work is a recording of all the energy a sensor sees, but we cannot. The images are thus transformed into a kind of hyper-vision showing aspects of reality we do not see, metaphorically and literally. They reveal the unseen energetic thumbprint of the universe we inhabit. 

Rendering Witness

Chromatic Resonance

These Woven Threads

Pattern Language

Something After Which  There Is No More

Perfect Contradiction

Helices Intertwined

In From Where I Stand, I combine visual typologies of human bodies as Metagraphs with multiple overlays of tessellated geometric patterns derived from ancient and contemporary cultures that use geometry as a visual language to express a higher order of truth that both our perceptions and our words fail to express. I call my work Metagraphs because like a photograph, which is a recording of visible light, my work is a recording of all the energy that a sensor sees but we cannot. The images are thus transformed into a kind of hyper-vision showing aspects of reality we do not see, metaphorically and literally. They reveal the unseen energetic thumbprint of the universe we inhabit. In this combination, I am seeking to unite two visual languages to express my belief that our perception of duality is inaccurate; instead, everything is united in a resonating matrix of energy.

Ocean Of Remembrance

This is a piece from my series titled “All Great Art Is Art About Art” of people looking at art in museums and large art fairs. 

This One Has A Kind Of Raw Vibrating Energy 

Faded Memory Of The Fabric Of Urban Life

Sol Hill’s camera-based artwork is a form of technological mysticism, capturing images from the world, but showing us an alternate vision, full of errant visual incidents and covert meanings. The artist allows both reality and his intuitive intentions to reveal themselves with an unexpected poignancy. His process is both technological and poetic, showing the limits of the visible and the possibilities of seeing beyond it.  Hill refers to his digitally captured photographs as “Metagraphs” because he employs digital sensors to record energies both visible and invisible to the human eye. He permits a variety of digital noise – extraneous energy in the form of electromagnetic energies, heat, and cosmic rays – to affect the image. Purist traditionalists might consider this technique a “false exposure”. However, the process he employs alters recognizable forms, producing a kind of meta-vision and revealing aspects of reality that we do not normally see. In this way he expands his vision and gives the viewer a look into a vast mysterious zone beyond our limited perception. These complex but meditative images, connected by components of science and spirituality are immersed in a palpable sense of time, absorbing viewers in a rewarding experience. Hill’s “Metagraphic” works are a fusion of science, technology, spirituality and art, tangibly presenting an a visual thumbprint of the energetic nature of the universe in extraordinarily beautiful images.  Cinematic and painterly, Hill’s dream-like digital images, have a presence that holds the viewer in a mesmerizing, momentary gaze. This unusual visual sensation is partly the result of his meta-visual digital capture process, then enhanced by an exceptionally skillful application of traditional presentation and archival methods. The counter-point of tradition and ambiguity results in a stunning image. Particularly, his figurative images imply a kind of passage across states of human existence. Anonymity in a variety of dramatic settings, is transfigured by both light and unknown energies. Individual identities subsumed in a field of scintillating particles. In all of Hill’s works, the viewer gets a glimpse of an existential, ephemeral world. There’s a life brilliantly present but mysteriously immersed in time beyond ordinary reality.  

It’s Like A Window Into A Beautiful Emptiness, It’s Very Liberating

When Benjamin Franklin was asked after a session of the Constitutional Convention, “What kind of a government have you given us?” he replied, “A democracy, if you can keep it.”

State of the Union

Priced at ¢50 per 16,721 NSA unmasking request granted in 2018 ($8360.50)  In 2018 NSA unmasking of American identities increased to 16,721 individuals, up 75% from 2017. Unmasking refers to the NSA releasing the identity of a citizen from the warrantless surveillance programs.   Public trust in the government has declined in the US since Snowden revealed the NSA’s secret surveillance programs on US citizens which has fueled deep state fears among numerous conspiracy theories. Democracy is an idea that works when we collectively value it. It also must be vigilant to defend itself, but sometimes these efforts are like cancer and attack it’s own body politic and fuel an erosion of trust in the idea itself.

You Are Being Watched

In 2018 22,560 refugees were admitted to the United States down from 132,531 admitted in 1992. This piece is priced at ¢10 per/refugee admitted to the US in 2018. By way of further comparison, Germany admitted 1,063,835 refugees in 2018. The price of the piece shows we don’t give a dime for the tired, the poor the huddled masses yearning to breathe free anymore. We want only your storied pomp!  

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she  With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,  the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” 
-Emma Lazarus , 1883

Unwelcome Mat at the Golden Door

The US Census Bureau placed the US population at 331,893,745 in the 2021 census. There are therefore approximately 331,893 people in the top .01% who control nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Priced at a penny for each .01%er, this piece speaks to inequality in America and the dominance of wealth over politics. It also subtly hints that the vast majority of wealth is controlled by white people. How can the will of (all) the people prevail in a system where such wealth vets all political candidates and dictates the parameters of public discourse? The colors of democracy are eclipsed by the sparkle of money. This is what happens when money is esteemed over all other values.  

I Am Better Than You

(Priced at ¢1 for every legal abortion performed in the United States in 2019)  According to the CDC, 629,898 legal abortions were reported in the year in 2019, the last year figures are published. Though this number has fallen in recent years, this is still a life choice that has an impact on a substantial number of lives every year and is a very salient issue, whichever side you agree with.  The Pro-Life/Pro-Choice culture war is perhaps the most divisive issue in American political discourse and drives much of the political divide in our country. This divide is deepened by each side claiming absolutes in their rhetoric and seeks to permanently deny the concerns of the other side. It is phrased as a zero sum issue that leaves no room for compromise, leaving only the sense of tyranny that will destroy the side of America one identifies with.

Life Choice

The noise of conspiracy theories and the ideological news silos that feed us only opinions we identify with encourages us to believe that hoaxes abound and that information from credible news sources and governments are no longer trustworthy. The truth is very difficult to read in the atmosphere of noise and distrust, but it is there, right in front of us… if we are willing and able to take the time to read through the noise of distrust. The underlying text is a sentence from an Adrienne Rich poem titled “What Kinds Of Times Are These?” Can you read it? 

The original is printed on either side of a ½” thick sheet of acrylic, so the parallax action between the top and bottom layers help the viewer in person assemble the elements of the text below and read the passage.

This Is Not Somewhere Else

The last two years have seen a new trend of so called patriots flying all black american flags, symbolizing “no quarter given” and may even imply a willingness to use (lethal) violence against fellow citizens, who threaten narrow vision of what the U.S. is supposed to look like, how they believe our government is supposed to function, or what they think freedom is.

 “Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will be, pursued, until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. A coalition of a majority of the whole society could seldom take place upon any other principles, than those of justice and the general good.” —James Madison

 "America will not be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedom, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -Abraham Lincoln 

Absence of Civil Society

In 2021 20,835 people were killed by guns in the United States, not including by suicide. At $1 per bullet casing/human life, the price of this artwork addresses the unsavory task of placing a value on human life and raises the question of where does the value of a life fall in our hierarchy of values? The second amendment has created a setting for the bitter meal we must sit down to in order to discuss the collateral damage that contemporary American gun culture serves U.S.

Caseload

 This work is a direct reference to Jasper Johns’ Three Flags. Like Johns’ famous work, this piece seeks to transform the famous political emblem but unlike Johns the intention is to infuse a warning of political peril into the piece rather than remove it into the space of formalized design. Here the flags have been quite literally taken apart and re-sewn, to create visual disunity reflecting the contemporary political situation. But there is optimism intended in this flag as this piece is literally re-stitched together with the fragmented pieces of 3 flags into a new collective whole, showing us that working together can restore the pieces of the nation.

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