Surface Matters | Olivia Bax & Ellen Hyllemose

Everything has an armature, every idea, and every object. Once you locate the structure of something, you can start to think about it.
Charles Ray

FOLD is pleased to present Surface Matters a two-person show of sculpture by Danish artist Ellen Hyllemose and British artist Olivia Bax. This show continues with the gallery’s curatorial decision to present exhibitions where two artists present three large-scale works that operate in concise dialogue within the gallery. This intimate presentation allows for an exchange between the artists that is intentionally exposed and raw, leaving little of the commonalities and divergences hidden. Allowing the work to have plenty of space, offers a generosity not often found in two person presentations and creates a vital tension between the landscape of the gallery, the physicality of the work and the body of the viewer.

Olivia Bax is interested in the balance between planning and spontaneous making, between mass and detail. Her work considers how we view sculpture in relation to our wider built environment. All the pieces in Surface Matters start with a steel armature. There is no preconceived plan; the steel is a freehand drawing in space. But it also has a function. Like a traditional armature, it is the core and the framework on which to build. The steel armatures are covered with chicken wire, papier-mâché and paper pulp. An area of the armature (usually the most detailed section) is deliberately exposed.

Ellen Hyllemose present sculptures are about surface and both external and internal space. The fabric surface is worked in and on, from behind and through. The sculptures are hollow and the possibility of looking inside the sculpture makes the coloured fabric the focus for defining space, the space behind the surface. Every surface has a space behind it, like the skin on our body or the material inside furniture. The emptiness behind the surface and the holes through parts of the sculptures gives painterly depth allowing light through. The wooden armature gives movement - supporting and expanding the surface of the Lycra. The combination of rough and precise marks in the fabric defines form and shape and gives each sculpture its personality. The full size sculptures, hanging sculptures almost floor to ceiling, makes your own body move in the gallery space.