Kenny Hill, Chauvin Sculpture Garden, Chauvin, LA
The Site
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.
Kenny Hill
born c. 1950
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 throughout the property. Although most of them contained imagery inspired by his religious beliefs, he also made self-portraits, eagles, cowboys, and maidens out of concrete, bricks, and scavenged objects.
After a dispute with the landowner, Hill abandoned his work and disappeared in 2000. His whereabouts remain unknown.
