Martin Hill’s international award winning photographs of ephemeral environmental sculptures made in collaboration with Philippa Jones, utilise the transformative power of nature’s design principles to awaken the human spirit towards a transition to a cyclical restorative human economy.

Using only found natural materials in wild natural locations Hill and Jones, based in New Zealand, travel the world making ephemeral sculptures that last only a short while before they are absorbed back into the natural system from which they are made.

The photographs are intended to evoke a powerful connection between the viewer and the principles of the natural world which the artists believe is being lost in modern culture and is the main cause of our disconnection from nature and each other leading to our unsustainability.

Martin Hill born 1946 London, UK, educated at High Wycombe University of art and design. Worked as a designer in London, Nairobi, Sydney, and Auckland New Zealand founding a design company and winning several national and international awards.
Philippa Jones, born 1950, New Zealand, studied English, art history. Worked as a weaver and journalist.

In 1992 Hill began making environmental sculpture works. Hill and Jones met in 1994 and began to collaborate in making ephemeral sculptures which Hill photographed, published and exhibited internationally.

A book of photographs of the sculptures titled Earth to Earth was published in 2007 and included writing from leaders in sustainable practice. A film of their art practice was made in 2010, titled A Delicate Canvas.

Recent projects are Watershed, an exhibition examining the water cycle and climate change exhibited at McClelland Gallery Melbourne and New Zealand in 2014, an exhibition at Pingyao International Photography Festival in 2014 which won an award for Excellence in Photography. In December 2014 they were awarded an artist residency by Antarctica New Zealand at Scott Base where they completed sculptures at locations in McMurdo Sound and the Ross Ice Shelf. In January 2015 they participated in an artists project in Fiordland, New Zealand. Several works from Antarctica and Fiordland are included in this exhibition.

A major global work in progress is the Fine Line Project begun 1995: 12 ephemeral sculptures made on high points connected by a line encircling Earth. The tenth sculpture was completed in Antarctica December 2014. The Fine Line Project will be completed when the last sculpture is made on Mt Ngauruhoe in New Zealand, the site of the first sculpture.