The Art of Sculpting Wood: A Woodworker’s Tale (Documentary)

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.

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