Seán Hillen facts for kids

Seán Hillen is an artist born in Ireland in 1961. He is known for his amazing collages, which are artworks made by sticking different pictures together. He also uses his own photographs in creative ways.

Early Life and Art School

Seán Hillen grew up in Newry, a town in Northern Ireland near the border with the Republic of Ireland. He was a teenager during a difficult time called the Troubles, which was a period of conflict. To keep him safe and busy, his parents bought him a camera. This helped him discover his love for photography.

Seán studied art at the Belfast College of Art. Later, he moved to London to continue his studies at the London College of Printing and the Slade School of Fine Art.

Art from the Troubles Era

While studying, Seán often traveled between Northern Ireland and England. He started using his camera to take pictures of the conflict in Northern Ireland. He noticed that many newspapers already had photos of the Troubles. So, he decided to create something different.

He began making photomontages. These are collages where he mixed his own black-and-white photos with other images. He used pictures from religious leaflets, London tourist postcards, and even toy packaging. Some of his famous collages from this time include Four Ideas for a New Town, #1 and Trouble in Paradise #1. His artworks often had long, funny titles, like Sr. Faustina Appears In LondonNewry, Miraculously Preventing The Illegal Photography Of Members Of The Security Forces....

In the 1990s, it was hard for Seán to show his art in galleries. This might have been because people were worried about the Northern Ireland peace process. However, today, his collages are seen as very important artworks that help us understand the conflict. Some of them are even kept in the Imperial War Museum in London.

Seán's photographs from the Troubles era are also important. They show what life was like in Northern Ireland during that time. A writer named Frank Miller said that Seán's photos captured both big events and everyday moments. He called Seán's view unique, like someone who was both "an insider and also an outsider."

In 2011, the National Library of Ireland bought over 500 of Seán's photos from the Troubles. They are now part of a special collection. Some of these photos were shown in an exhibition in Dublin in 2012.

In 2013, a book of these photos was published called Melancholy Witness. The title comes from a quote by the famous poet Seamus Heaney. Heaney said Seán's photos were like "black and white time machines" that showed the sadness and danger of the Troubles.

The Irelantis Series

In 1993, Seán moved back to Ireland and settled in Dublin. From 1994 to 1997, he created a new series of artworks called Irelantis. This became his most famous collection of photomontages.

For Irelantis, Seán made collages by hand, using a scalpel and glue. He created amazing, dream-like pictures by combining old monuments, like the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt, with pretty, old-fashioned pictures of Ireland from tourist postcards by John Hinde. He showed famous Irish places like the Cliffs of Moher, Newgrange, Trinity College, and O'Connell Street in a new, surprising way.

Other Art Projects

Seán Hillen has also worked in many other art forms. He has created sculptures, videos, illustrations, and even designs for theater stages.

One of his ongoing photo projects is called the Untitled Broken Umbrella Project. For this, he takes hundreds of photos of broken umbrellas he finds around Dublin.

In 2007, Seán and a landscape architect named Desmond Fitzgerald won a competition to design a memorial for the Omagh bomb tragedy. Seán still lives and works in Dublin today.

His artworks are held in many important collections. These include the Irish State Collection, the Imperial War Museum, the European Central Bank, and even companies like Microsoft.