Soon to be seen in Sydney: new work by Olive Gill-Hille

Work in progress for Asymptote by Olive Gill-Hille. Photo: Olivia Senior

West Australian wood artist Olive Gill-Hille’s second solo exhibition ‘Asymptote’ opens next week at Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert as a feature of Powerhouse Museum, Sydney Design Week 2023, curated by Keinton Butler.

Olive Gill-Hille is an emerging artist who is becoming known for her work in found native timbers. She was a finalist in this year’s Ramsay Art Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, with Nocturne, an ebonised console table. She has previously exhibited with Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert during Sydney Contemporary, Melbourne Design Fair and in New Australian Design, Powerhouse Museum.

‘After reflecting on ideas about touch, tension and anticipation I struggled to find a word to describe the moment before two people touch, maybe for the first time, or maybe when the anticipated touch doesn’t happen,’ explains Olive Gill-Hille.

‘Asymptote is a mathematical term for a straight line that continually approaches a curve but does not meet it at any infinite distance, even if to the perception of the human eye it does touch. I liked the idea of taking this sort of impersonal word and giving it a romantic application, to me it seemed the closest word I could find to the moment before touch that I was trying to express.’

Olive Gill-Hille with Nocturne, recently a finalist for the The Ramsay Art Prize at Art Gallery of South Australia. Photo: Sam Roberts, courtesy Art Gallery of South Australia

Asymptote opens this Thursday September 21 and runs at Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert until November 5, 2023.