Hilary Powell

Hilary Powell is an artist whose imaginative and interdisciplinary practice is consistently engaged with the changing urban environment and its secret histories. She has made theatrical installations in derelict sites across Europe from a car ballet/concert on Amsterdam Docklands to projects in Berlin factories and empty London lidos.  Hilary has a PhD in Cultural Studies from Goldsmith’s College where she extended this investigation around eventful practices within urban spaces. A recent commission for Archway by AIR at Byam Shaw School of Art and Islington Council involved a participatory roller-skating extravaganza in an overlooked urban site creating the film animation ‘Light Years Away’.

Hilary’s film ‘The Games’ marked the beginning of her ongoing engagement with the Olympic site and its changing fringe lands. She is involved with local company ‘Pudding Mill River: Purveyors of Sporting Spirits and Foodstuffs’ as they gather and market the last wild harvests of this Olympic zone and sponsor many of the events she holds focused on the power of creative practice operating around large scale regeneration projects. Recent events include ‘Blue Movies on the Greenway’ screening films onto the last remaining sections of the former Olympic blue fence and a prototype float in cinema projecting films onto boats made out of this blue fence.

Hilary is a partner in Optimistic Productions with Dan Edelstyn, and when not prowling the fringes of the Olympic site she is working on their feature film for More 4 called ‘How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire,’ subject of an APEngine showcase.