YOU ARE HERE
2 – 4 October 2026 | Gallery Ethos
The exhibition YOU ARE HERE at Gallery Ethos is the culmination of an artist residency conducted as part of the gallery's international exchange project, Core to Core: Norway × Korea.
The body of work is deeply inspired by the traditional Korean concept of yeobaek—the beauty of empty space that invites profound contemplation, where emptiness transforms into a presence of its own. As part of her immersion into Korean culture, Hill visited the historic Haeinsa Buddhist Temple in Gayasan National Park. There, she encountered a mesmerising meditation and prayer labyrinth known as the Haeindo. This geometric stone mandala traces the ancient lines of a Buddhist swastika.
While contemporary Western culture predominantly associates the swastika with Nazism, it is natively a cross-cultural, ancient geometric symbol. As one of humanity’s oldest and most widespread emblems, it has historically served as a sacred sign of luck, prosperity, and protection. Traced back to the Neolithic era, the symbol arose independently across several global civilizations and was even utilised by the Vikings until around 1000 AD. Tragically, due to its appropriation by the Nazi Party in the 1920s, displaying the symbol is now legally prohibited in several Western countries. By integrating both the Eastern and Western lineages of the symbol, Hill challenges its modern connotations. Her work attempts to reclaim the emblem, restoring its original positive essence after decades of being tarnished by historical trauma.
The works East, West, and You Are Here are prints of digital drawings derived from the structure of the Haeinsa labyrinth. The overarching title, YOU ARE HERE, plays on the modern ubiquitous language of way finding maps used to orient people in physical geography. Here, the drawings function as tools to navigate the mental realm, inviting viewers to fill the empty spaces with prayer and meditation by visually tracing the labyrinthine paths. Alongside these drawings, Hill presents two hand-cut aluminium plate sculptures. The plates are sliced into spiral patterns and pulled from their flat, two-dimensional planes into three-dimensional forms. These spirals serve as an open invitation to mentally wander through their shifting gradients, offering a tactile tool for meditation and inner tranquillity.
About the Artist
Camilla L. Hill lives and works in Sola, Norway. She graduated from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO) with a BFA in Medium and Material-Based Art in 2016. She is an active member of the Norwegian Association for Arts and Crafts (NK), the Association of Norwegian Sculptors (NBF), and the Association of Norwegian Visual Artists (NBK). Hill draws inspiration from nature, dreams, and mysticism, alongside a deep fascination with the origins of life and the physical and spiritual transitions of death. Ultimately, her work explores the invisible threads that bind humanity together across gender, age, culture, and ethnicity.