Kenny Hill spent a decade building an environment, which comprises sixty life-size concrete sculptures on a bayou-side property in Chauvin, Louisiana. His professional bricklaying experience gave Hill a strong understanding of the material. The thin hollow figures with attenuated limbs are painted, with a surface texture he produced using everyday utensils including forks and spoons. He also constructed a forty-five-foot-tall lighthouse, built with seven thousand bricks that is covered with sculptures of soldiers, angels, cowboys, and God. It also includes a sculpture depicting Hill clinging and climbing upward on the exterior, one of several self-portraits throughout the site. Some of the sculptures have electrical and water features.
Known as a recluse, Hill made it clear that he had no interest in any fame connected with his work. He repeatedly turned down press requests but reportedly declared his work a “story of salvation” for locals.
Hill abandoned his work and disappeared in 2000. After his disappearance, the site was gifted to nearby Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. In 2002, the Chauvin Sculpture Garden was officially opened to the public with the dedication of the new Nicholls State University Folk Art Studio, a gift of Kohler Foundation, Inc.
The Arts Center has one self-portrait sculpture that Hill made on his brother’s property after he left Chauvin.
born c. 1950
Kenny Hill, untitled, c. 2004; concrete, paint, wire, stone, and found object; 46 x 31 x 44 in. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, gift of Kohler Foundation Inc.
It is believed that Kenny Hill was born in 1950, although documentation does not exist. He was raised in Springfield, Louisiana, where he worked as a bricklayer, and he married at the age of twenty. He left his wife and three children for Chauvin, Louisiana, in 1988. Hill found a large bayou-side property where he initially camped and eventually negotiated with the landowner to build himself a small house. In 1990, he began making sculptures
1. snap a selfie in front of the sculpture gardens sign holding your GPS are phone.
2. what's written in the white circle around the eagle sculpture?
3.what war was Kenny Hill a veteran of.
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