Aaron Li-Hill

Canadian artist Aaron Li-Hill had recently gone to Annecy, France for his latest project entitled “Changing Tides”. The art installation was done in collaboration with Art By Friends for Annecy Passage Art Festival.With a global rise in temperatures, civil conflicts, inequality, and insecurity, the UNHCR has recorded the number of displaced persons at an all-time high for the past decade. The Alps region where Annecy is located is far from untouched; from glaciers losing mass more quickly than at any point in history, to people risking their lives to cross the massive geological barrier. Neptune, the god of the sea, becomes an apt vessel when speaking about the struggles facing so many peoples on the planet, as the earth’s water cycle is in flux.The imagery for this installation was created with the help of Adoma, an organization helping people in difficulty to find housing. Through them, I was able to meet the model for the bust of this image, one of many who travelled over desert, sea and mountain to arrive in France. Reinterpreting one of the most classical depictions of Neptune that sits in the Louvre by Antoine Coysevox, this installation reimagines power and possibility.Li-Hill is an artist who implements painting, illustration, stenciling, and sculptural elements to his works. Through the western perspective, Li-Hill’s works attempts to decrypt the complexities of rapid development in the modern age and points towards the devastating effects of capitalism on the essence of the individual.He incorporates found objects and unconventional materials to structure complex multi-layered pieces that are as aesthetic as they are thought provoking. Li-Hill possesses a BFA from OCAD and has travelled and shown in countries such as Australia, Thailand, Myanmar, Mexico and China.Check out below for more images of “Changing Tides”. More