Rebecca Grace Hill
Collapsing Distance: A Correspondence
Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts
Image Title: "Collapsing Distance" Installation Layout / Image Credit: Ali Schiffner / Year: 2020
Materials: Pink mailbox, porcelain clown figurine, peals of laughter / Year: 2020 / Photographer: Jonathan Castillo
Materials: Seafoam mailbox, sand, sadness / Year: 2020 / Photographer: Jonathan Castillo
Materials: Brass letterbox, single striped 'Fourth of July' rose, sirens and the smell of smoke / Year: 2021 / Photographer: Jonathan Castillo
Materials: Unreachable mailslots, misplaced patriotism, bunting / Year: 2021 / Photographer: Jonathan Castillo
Materials: Converted mansion mailbox, 185 pieces of rusted rebar and rubble, 48 plantable paper hearts / Year: 2020 / Photographer: Jonathan Castillo
Materials: Baby shoes, aluminum mailbox, emptiness / Year: 2020 / Photographer: Jonathan Castillo
Project Statement
Collapsing Distance is an interdisciplinary project that explores significant life events, meaningful places, and the synchronicities and connects between these. A 30-year autobiographical narrative of the artist's life across seven homes – punctuated by seven significant events – is told through a 30-foot installation of seven mailboxes. Mailboxes are not only storage and the jumping off point of a journey for a piece of mail, but they are also symbols of arrival, of returning home. They are mirco-dwellings for paper that have a close association with the macro-dwelling for people. When people are physically removed from a place, they can no longer easily access memories that emerged easily and organically when wandering around. However, handling physical objects reactivate these latent memories. So, this project is a material investigation of memory activation, which recognizes cherished objects as meaningful and powerful tools for meaning-making and resilience.
Artist Biography
Rebecca Grace Hill is an American interdisciplinary artist, sculptor, jeweler, poet, and giftgiver. Both Hill and her work can be found around Chicago, California, and throughout New Zealand. Her published writings include poetry, book reviews, and scholarly work. She loves Chicago for its imagination, inventiveness, and resilience. She lives with her spouse and two cats near one of the highest natural elevations in the area, Ridge Avenue, close to where she was born.