You really don’t remember?

You really don’t remember? features a selection of artist proofs from Tyler Bright Hilton’s ongoing series of narrative etchings. Mixing fictional and real-life people ‘cast’ as antagonists who symbolize different themes, this work is inspired by film noir, a genre which combines the fatalism and disorientation of a society going through rapid and frightening cultural changes. Hilton believes this aesthetic provides an apt lens for work he has been developing about the intersection of privilege and moral accountability. He would like viewers of his work to feel they are entering into an immersive, cohesive world with characters and settings they can project themselves onto and into. The environments he depicts are places where our minds can wander, and in a larger sense, that is what this work is for: a psychological space for viewers to consider their own beliefs and feelings; the way they see themselves in the world, and the way others might see them. 

The prints in this exhibition are in various states of progress. Hilton intends to open up the technical processes and the thinking behind the complete works, how formal and conceptual considerations are in constant dialogue within each etching. 

All of these prints were produced with the assistance of Laine Groeneweg at Smokestack Studio in Hamilton.

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Tyler Bright Hilton makes prints and drawings that combine visual metaphors within narratives that explore the distinctions between perception and projection, balancing unpredictable and conflicting moods; at once sentimental and ironic, aesthetic and grotesque. Hilton received a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, and an MFA from the Chelsea College of Art, London (2008). His work was shown most recently in the inaugural exhibition of DIANA, New York; For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you at The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Minmei Madelynne Pryor on the Trail of a Liar at C.G. Boerner, New York and VIVIANEART, Calgary; and Twin Paradox at Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Vancouver. Hilton’s work is included in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Archive of Modern Conflict.

Produced with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.