Georgia Hill: “Here, I Feel That the Essence of Why We Paint Is Still Very Much Alive”
Georgia Hill Interview
# “Here, I Feel That the Essence of Why We Paint Is Still Very Much Alive”
Australian artist Georgia Hill visited Serbia this June to mentor participants at the Female Street Art Incubator camp and paint a mural at DUK Festival in Čačak. Georgia is a multidisciplinary artist from Sydney and one of Australia’s most prominent street artists. For over a decade, her work has adorned large walls and canvases, carrying vulnerable messages expressed through black-and-white typography and intriguing textures. We spoke with her about the camp, the Balkan street art scene, her artistic practice, and the mural she painted in Čačak.
**Your experience of Serbia was a little different from the usual one. You skipped Belgrade and Čačak and went straight to Goračići, in the Dragačevo region, to mentor at the Female Street Art Incubator project. How did that feel?**
**Georgia Hill:** It was a wonderful way to arrive in a new place. Especially because I had never been to Serbia before. I hadn’t been to Belgrade, and although I think seeing the architecture would have been exciting, I really enjoyed moving quickly through the landscapes.
I was invited to mentor at FSAI, a project aimed at empowering female street artists, and I was genuinely excited about the invitation. This is something I usually do quietly, on the sidelines, talking to other artists, but it tends to happen within friendships and among people who paint together. Given the origins of street art and graffiti culture, I think there are a lot of men painting and a lot of guys encouraging one another. Of course, there are also many women, but making a real effort to focus on women and encourage them was very important.
**Having met artists and festival organisers from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, what is your impression of the Balkan street art scene?**
It’s a very interesting position to be in. Artists and organisers in the Balkans are neither behind the times nor naive. As the scene develops, they have the opportunity to consider challenges that European and American festivals have already faced over the past decade.
In my opinion, the Balkan street art scene is incredibly layered and exciting. There is a very strong sense of identity, as well as a deep connection between people, society, culture, and recent history. There is a combination of strength and frustration that doesn’t remain suppressed or gradually turn into apathy. On the contrary, artists and organisers use that energy as a driving force, creating authentic works, spaces, and experiences that engage the community.
**Your art and style are very recognisable, combining black-and-white words and textures. How did you develop this approach?**
**Georgia Hill:** I quickly realised that I had a particular inclination towards not using many colours. It’s not exactly a black-and-white approach; I simply don’t particularly enjoy working with colour. I think colours carry many different layers of information, but that wasn’t the kind of information I wanted to play with. I wanted to explore other things instead.
I always feel like I have to justify myself by saying that I do love colour. There are artists who use it in incredible ways. But for the things I feel and want to express, the weight of the words themselves can do so much.
**How do you choose your words?**
**Georgia Hill:** I write a lot, mostly in the form of notes and thoughts. There’s a lot of writing, a lot of feeling, and lots of quick notes on my phone and in a notebook that I constantly return to.
Sometimes they’re song lyrics I wish I could hear, even though they aren’t actually songs, but more like music playing in my head. I realised that I’ve always loved playing with words. I’ve always loved arranging words in space and exploring how you move through them, even when they’re on a page. When words are placed in every corner of a page, they slow down the way you read them.
**“I see you / I’m in two / A part of me remains forever” is written on your mural in Čačak. What does it mean to you?**
**Georgia Hill:** For me, “I see you, I’m in two” was a phrase that came to me very quickly. I wanted to create the feeling of large banners, not made of fabric, but more like two cascading forms falling down the side of a building. I wanted them to feel like paper or a constructed surface, with all those folds and irregularities.
As I developed the work, I felt that the forms could represent two separate sides, almost like two sides of a mountain or a valley. “I see you” sounds very gentle and loving to me, while “I’m in two” illustrates a state of division, two opposing thoughts, or the feeling of being torn apart.
It can be particularly challenging when someone tells you they love you just as you are, while you yourself feel divided or scattered into different parts. I like that I was able to resolve that feeling through the work.
**We heard you had some interesting interactions with someone on the third floor of the building.**
**Georgia Hill:** An elderly woman lived on the third floor, right next to the letter Y in the mural. We absolutely didn’t speak the same language. From what I could gather, she wasn’t particularly fond of the artwork, but she liked having me there, which was very sweet.
My favourite moment was when she said the work was intended for young people, not for her, so it was perfectly fine that she didn’t like it. Once again, I felt very welcome.
She even found a stick that she used to tap against the railing of her balcony next to the lift to get my attention. I would think the lift was falling or that something was wrong, and then I’d look over and see that it was just her, bringing me coffee and cherries.
I was truly taken care of on every possible level throughout this project.
**Anything you’d like to add before we finish?**
**Georgia Hill:** The experience of painting at DUK Festival was truly special for me. It’s not that other festivals I’ve worked at were any worse. This isn’t about comparing them at all. I simply feel that the entire time I spent in Serbia was one big invitation to feel welcome.
There are so many projects and festivals where so much is happening that everything becomes overwhelming and it’s easy to get distracted. Here, I feel that the essence of why we paint and why we do these kinds of things is still very much alive, and that this is what drives the DUK team. It’s wonderful to be reminded of that.
It reminds me of 2016, when I was very young and just starting out. The past few weeks have felt like a complete, full-circle experience for me. It was fantastic.
And I love Serbia. Let that be my final word!
