Joan Hills (née Little) is an artist born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1931. She lives in London. Her most prominent work has been made within the long-standing artist

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...

Boyle Family which she founded in the 1980s with her partner Mark Boyle (1934 - 2005). The collaborative group also includes their two children Sebastian Boyle (b. 1962) and Georgia Boyle (b.1963).

Boyle Family

One of Boyle Family's most renowned works is ''World Series'' or ''Journey to the Surface of the Earth'' which began at a party at the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

, London in 1968, where Joan Hills and Mark Boyle invited the guests to throw darts at a 1:10,000,000 map of the world. The exact points where the darts landed have been the focus and source material for photographic, sculptural and film works. The introduction of chance (and performance) within the conception of the work aligns their approach with

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

although their pared back, literal copying (

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejected ...

) of plain urban environments often looks like

Minimalism In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

. Boyle Family's work is held within collections including The National Galleries of Scotland and The Scottish Parliament. In 1978 the Boyle Family went to Venice to participate in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, selected to exhibit in the British Pavilion. The work was made collaboratively but was labelled as Mark Boyle's. By the end of 1978 they were exhibiting as 'Mark Boyle and Joan Hills', but it took until the mid 1980s for them to start exhibiting as Boyle Family.

Formative years of collaboration

In the 1950s Joan Hills lived in Sussex and had a son, Cameron Hills (b.1952), who was initially also involved in Boyle Family art projects. Joan Hills and Mark Boyle met in April 1957 in Harrogate, Yorkshire. At that point Mark Boyle considered himself a poet and it was only after experimenting with Joan Hills' paints that he became involved in

Visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts al ...

. Mark Boyle cited Joan Hills as one of his greatest influences, saying she was "she was gentle, brave and immensely resourceful" in an interview with Henry Lydiate. The couple then moved onto making

Assemblage (art) Assemblage is an artistic form or medium usually created on a defined substrate that consists of three-dimensional elements projecting out of or from the substrate. It is similar to collage, a two-dimensional medium. It is part of the visual ar ...

a progression towards the sculptural work which forms much of their oeuvre as Boyle Family. During the 1960s they were heavily involved in the Psychedelic era night club and

Happening A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

scene in England, pioneering the use of transparent surfaces, oil, acid, body fluids and collaged images combined with projectors to create

Liquid light show Liquid light shows (or psychedelic light shows) are a form of light art that surfaced in the early 1960s as accompaniment to electronic music and avant-garde theatre performances. They were later adapted for performances of rock or psychedelic m ...

s. During this era they worked with rock band

Soft Machine Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards, 1966–1976), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals, 1966–1971), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals, 1966–1968) and Daevid Allen (guitar, 1966–196 ...

and musician

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

, regularly performing at the UFO nightclub in London.

Later life

Joan Hills and Mark Boyle married in 1999. Mark Boyle died in 2005.

References

External links

Boyle Family official website.Discogs entry for Joan Hills with portrait.British Council website with image of extended Boyle Family in Venice, 1978.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hills, Joan 1931 births Living people Artists from Edinburgh British conceptual artists Women conceptual artists Psychedelic artists Scottish contemporary artists 21st-century Scottish women artists 20th-century Scottish women artists