Candace Hill‐Montgomery, Against Containment

Abstract

In a 1984 Interview magazine profile, Candace Hill-Montgomery is described as 'a true artist-of-all-media and a master of most' (plate 1). 1 She is, the profile continues, 'a poet, painter, performer, musician and photographer', and also a self-described 'environmental sculptor'. 2 She appears in the accompanying portrait dressed in an outfit of her own makingsold from her own businessdotted with photo transfers that echo the work on the walls behind her.Hill-Montgomery was an artist of her time, fluent in both the emerging scene of alternative art spaces in late 1970s New York and the expansive commerce of Andy Warhol, who founded Interview in 1969. But Hill-Montgomery's enterprise was also distinct from these collectives and corporations, and involved collaboration with other artists, poets, musicians, publishers, and storeowners. Her work sought an engaged audience, and she employed a gamut of tactics including environmental sculptures that positioned and situated viewers (Reflections on Vacancy and Candy Coated, both 1979); large-scale photocollages with three-dimensional elements (Historic Extinction and An Unknown Relative, 1979); installations that made visceral state-sponsored violence (92 Morningside Ave -Remember Fred Hampton, 1980) and public commissions in which she gave away food against Federal cuts (Food For Thought, 1981). She also performed poetry in exhibitions and published artist's books that interlaced her writing and visual art (Fire Escape Scrolls, 1982 and Evening Tomorrow's Here Today Since the Hornet Flies I Triangle, 1983). As I will show in this article, her blending of forms produced complex formations.Hill-Montgomery described her practice as changing the 'containment we all live within', and the social implications of her formal experiments were fundamental to her practice. 3 Born in 1945, she came of age in the era of Black Power. As a young woman she had a successful career as a fashion model, before marrying and having two children. Although she worked as a high school art teacher, it was not until her children left for college that she pursued her creative practice full time, alongside a number of businesses. Hill-Montgomery was always politically engaged, and as she re-focused on art and poetry she committed to protesting the fresh outrages of conservatism in the 1980s, as well as addressing entrenched racialized and gendered forms of oppression. This social responsibility resonated with contemporary debates on the public function of art and site-specificity, debates that were particularly fraught in New York as the city became a financial capital. But Hill-Montgomery's work is not easily defined by these terms. Her artworks were often temporary orThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is noncommercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. The use and distribution of any images contained in ...