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Contemporary artist Dan Hillier merges the old with the new to exquisite effect. Trawling through scraps of Victoriana from wood cuts to etchings, engravings and anatomical drawings Hillier layers the up pieces from the past in a digital collage process, producing an entirely unique aesthetic that treads the line somewhere between surrealism and neo Victoriana. ‘Ghost’ depicts the head and torso of a man in nineteenth century dress smart smoking jacket, high starched collar and silk cravat. Yet Hillier has upset the traditional portrait in an eerie twist, replacing the sitter’s face with a ghostly forest of spindly trees. Rendered in monochrome, with the sketchy quality of an antiquated etching, the print is both beautiful and haunting a compelling piece of contemporary art.
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