The Art of Sculpting Wood: A Woodworker's Tale (Documentary)
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- Опубліковано 30 тра 2024
- Olive Gill-Hille is an artist, designer and woodworker based in Perth whose practice is inspired by her childhood and the coastal landscape where she lives. Working predominantly with timber, Olive’s studio is just outside of Fremantle in an industrial factory she shares with cabinet-makers. “I grew up surrounded by art. My parents were both artists and part of my daily life was making things, creating stuff, painting, sculpting and drawing. I feel like that has always been a really big part of who I am,” says Olive.
While her dad was a painter, Olive has always been drawn more to sculpture and the touch and textures of 3D forms. “While I love painting, it has never really been my calling. When I want to express myself, it has always been with sculpting, carving and modelling in some way.” As Olive was making the work for ‘Trunk’, her debut solo show in 2021, her dad passed. “This was a really big part of the body of work I first created as I was working through the grief of losing my dad,” says Olive.
As well as artistic inspiration from her childhood, lots of Olive’s inspiration comes from living in Perth. “Lots of shapes, forms and certain elements in my pieces directly reference the coastal landscape where I live … the work is grounded in place, I am very attached to where I come from,” notes Olive. Her sculptures also reference the human form, bodies, female shapes and cycles of a relationship.
As a woodworker, her process is grounded in working with timber, with most of her pieces made from ethically sourced Australian hardwoods like jarra. “The native Australian timbers are very temperamental - over the years of working with the wood I have had to learn a lot, like how they are almost alive after they have been chopped down, they've got a lot of movement, are quite a brittle hard timber and often quite high in gum content,” notes Olive. Olive reflects on the “exciting” process of going into the bush with her partner or friends in a four-wheel drive and craning pieces of wood onto the ute before “bushbashing” out. “While I am in the bush, I look for goldilocks timber. Something that hasn't just fallen but also hasn't turned into habitat or decayed, but not so fresh it will spring out when I carve into it,” says Olive.
Olive’s woodworker practice is an intuitive one. “When I’m making a sculpture, I have an idea straight away in my head of what I want to create, so I will source timber that will allow that design,” notes Olive.
The way Olive intuitively carves is a huge part of her woodworker practice, as is the transformative effect of sanding the timber to create a sculpture. “Sanding is the most laborious part of my job - it takes up the most amount of time and is very taxing on the body.” She continues, “but, even though some days it's probably the worst part of my day, it is also the most transformative as it takes an object that otherwise you wouldn't recognise as a high-end art object and transforms it into this beautiful, refined thing.”
Olive’s second solo show, ‘Asymptote’, explores the anticipation of an initial touch. “’Asymptote’ is a mathematical term - a straight line that approaches a curve infinitely and never really touches,” explains Olive. “The whole premise is on the moment between two people right before they decide to touch for the first time,” says Olive.
Olive feels both pride and empowerment when it comes to being an artist and her practice as a woodworker. “Because I do so much of it by myself, I have these moments where I think, ‘I can't believe I made that,’” notes Olive. “Sometimes making art can feel a little self-indulgent, so I aim to make works that speak to people. I want to touch on greater things. When I’m making the work, I hope people want to touch it and have it in their homes,” notes Olive. “The audience is an essential part of the work.”
00:00 - Introduction to Olive Gill Hille
01:00 - Location of the Artists Practice
01:27 - Finding Inspiration Through Grief
02:35 - Influences Shaping Her Work
03:07 - Sourcing Ethical Timber
04:26 - The Collaborative Process Of Carving
05:33 - The Finished Piece
05:54 - Upcoming Exhibition
06:26 - Intent For the Art
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Photography by Olivia Senior and Emma Pegrum.
Filmed by The Local Project.
Edited by Brad Hurt.
Production by The Local Project.
Location: Perth, Western Australia, Australia
The Local Project acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Owners of the land in Australia.
SyncID: MB01L6MKTRHUADJ - Розваги
We hope you all enjoyed the incredible journey into the artistry and craftsmanship of Olive Gill-Hille! Olive’s passion for sculpture and woodwork, deeply rooted in her childhood and the coastal landscapes of Perth, shines through in every piece. For more of the latest and greatest in architecture, interior design and house tours, be sure to order a copy of our book ‘10’: thelocalproject.com.au/product/10-celebrating-10-issues-of-the-local-project/
Fantastic! Please do more of these videos with artists.
More coming very soon! 😀
I'm here since 2019 and this that has 'nothing to do' with the channel I just found it amazingly great, so inspirational, real and beautiful. Thank you both TLP and Olive for sharing such a great work in a beautiful way.
What an eloquent, thoughtful, and capable young woman. I love your work, Olive, and wish you every success.
Wow, something new! Really interesting to watch creative people!!!
Glad to hear!
The results show she really loves her craft and works diligently to develop it. She's awesome!
She is!
Great homes, great businesses, now great creatives! Go TLP Go
For reasons I don’t understand, I had a deeply emotional response to this story. Thank you 🙏🏽
Loved seeing this story unfold so beautifully. Couldn’t agree more ❤🎥
Loved this !!!
So glad!
That was crazy inspiring. Love her style and ethic. The way she sources her own materials and makes her own stains out of service to the medium and respect for the process. I have worked with wood a bit as a carpenter, but not as an "artist" per se. This is making me rethink things in a new way. Beautiful work.
Couldn't agree more!
Ahhh evolution. This is awesome, I assume there’s more to come. Thank you LP. I love this channel 😌😌
Exactly right, more to come! Thanks Nick.
So fascinating! I love love love witnessing artists who have such a deep passion & thought out practice. So beautiful & inspiring. Very enthused to catch more episodes like these. Forever grateful for each and every TLP ep. We are very lucky.
MAGNIFIQUE MAGNIFIQUE
I could watch this content all day. So inspiring!
same :)
Una artista y una historia.
so inspiring! more of this please.
Incoming!
Beautiful
Beyond beautiful
❤ A very interesting process of work, an excellent equipped room. Thank you very much for the video and for the beautiful nature! ❤
Thank you very much!
Nice and thanks.
Most welcome!
Beautiful works created by a beautiful person.
Welcome to today’s therapy session where we try a new concept with an artist. Enjoy 🤤
♥️ I’m a very tactile person, so I’m very drawn to Olive’s pieces. They are so stunning. And I’d love to own a piece one day.
Beautiful. Love this new series! Favorite design art/design channel hands down. 🙏
What a great way to pass time. Carving, sanding, and the like are can be very medatative, shoot, why can't all creative endevous be medatative? That sounds like a much more practical way for us as humans to use our free time. Make something instead of consuming what others make.
So beautiful 😍
Now this is the type of art that makes me want to be a collector 🤩
So breathtaking!!!
You go girl ♥....I can feel your work empowers you so much ...especially the creative process
Belle réflexion et beau travail 👍👍👍
Hmmmm.. Nice. 👏👏👏👏🙂
❤❤❤❤ brilliant!
Simply love this…merci…
Goodness! I feel a strong female power and woody power from this artist ❤ love to see more!
Bello trabajo.
Nice work. If you don't know Thaddeus Mosley, check him out. By the way, love the Gae Aulenti lamp.
Beautiful art 👌😍
Wah! Beautiful work mashallah. Please be my mentor 🙏🌹🙏
I believe her name is Gill-Hille, with an "e" at the end, not Hill. She is an amazing artist!
Where can i find the music you used in this video ?
Freo!
Often in the bush
you guys may wanna make a separate channel for this sort of content...
This wasn't impressive; I'm sorry.