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Hold Me Closer

​An exhibition of artworks by Ashurst Emerging Artist Prize 2021 Highly Commended Artist

Thomas Hjelm

Curated by Niya Ruseva
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On display at the Ashurst Emerging Artist Gallery, 10th January - 30th March 2022
The exhibition ‘Hold Me Closer’ by Thomas Hjelm incorporates ‘the screen’ and its role in human connection and mass media. Distorted imagery, slogan-like texts and the distinct structural body of the artworks pull the viewer into the artist’s understanding of reality.
Hjelm uses a combination of modified printers, scanners and painterly techniques in the creation of his artworks. This synthesis is the perfect representation of the digital and physical worlds we occupy, balancing our existence within them. Drawing influence from the likes of Barbara Kruger, Robert Rauschenberg and Wade Guyton, Hjelm looks to manipulate these machines of mass marketing and create imagery referential to external spaces and ideologies. Translating his surroundings onto the emotively primed linen, Hjelm incorporates ‘the screen’ and questions concerning seductive communication and the aesthetic choices of mass media within physical viewership. 
The ubiquitous digital communications play a key role in defining not only our perceptions of reality but of human connection. A sense of disconnected intimacy is created in Hjelm’s work, as the associated flatness which comes with the use of scanners is combated by the structural disruptions of the surface through ripping or building upon the initial imagery. The push-pull relationship between warm and cold in his colour palette creates a sense of both familiarity and dissociation for the viewer: from acidic greens, to cool blues and purples, to bright oranges and reds, bring an explosion of sensations that enrich the experience of rediscovering Hjelm’s artworks with each look. 
‘Hold Me Closer’ gives an insight into Hjelm’s internal world and the physicality of his practice. Every time his pieces reveal a new image or texture, building an overwhelming feeling of restrained chaos. In his search for understanding the digital realm and humanity in the moments of isolation and crisis, Hjelm creates an explosion frozen at a different state of either build-up or decay.

Picture
Hold Me Closer
130 x 170 cm 
Inkjet and Paint on Linen
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Hold Me Closer embodies the disruptive and tangible nature of Hjelm’s practice; a distortion of imagery and text ubiquitously found within mass media translated into something uniquely physical. The multi-layered artwork distorts the familiarity of image creation and consumption through a reinterpretation of structures and systems taken for granted. The canvas cries out for connection whilst humorously proclaiming the lack of intimacy found through digital means, exemplified through the silhouetted figure and erosion of the canvas surface revealing a darker abyss. The internalised need to be virtually present has ironically created a greater understanding of what it is to be alone with oneself. The imagery of the canvas is designed to grab your attention like an advertisement, drawing the viewer in, whilst simultaneously being caught on the fixation of the female’s gaze and the surrounding body and texts begin to unfurl.

Picture
Just Passing Time 
110 x 150 cm
Inkjet and Paint on Linen


The screen and the digital realm are reoccurring themes in Hjelm’s artworks. The multiplicity of the same image in Just Passing Time relates to his commentary on mass media production and the advertisements to which we are repeatedly exposed. The flatness of the image contradicts the intimacy of the creation process, which becomes an analogy of product display and self-representation on social media. The screen exists as a window to the external, that society has become increasingly dependent on. This digital environment has liberated us from our confinements whilst simultaneously causing an increasing disconnection from the intimate; the canvas is inflated to a point as Hjelm suggests breaking through the proverbial screen to reach the receiver.

Picture
Good Life Decisions 
90 x 120 cm 
Inkjet and Paint on Linen 


Good Life Decisions gives the viewer a moment of reflection on what we truly understand as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’ Staring at the screen is an all-consuming passive act that has caused a dependency on devices in order to feel connected, diminishing the daily time for active ‘life decisions.’ The decision on how and who we spend time with, as well as the imagery we choose to represent ourselves, ultimately alters the ego which can negatively inhibit personal growth. The decisions that we make every day by investing in the tangible and the ‘now’, is at the core of Hjelm’s practise. 
The moment when the ego can separate itself from online presence and personal screen dependency, is where the ‘good life decisions’ begin, free from the constraint of digital decay through physical presence.
Picture
Shake It Up 
110 x 150 cm 
Inkjet and Paint on Linen


Shake It Up is a playful critique on the consumerisation of the structures of a balanced life. The self-referential modified ink cartridges, which Hjelm uses in production, fly out of frame labelled ‘Health’, ‘Wealth’, ‘Love’. The prevalent hand didactically grasps at these fundamentals as they move turbulently up in the air, demanding a consideration of priorities. Hjelm shakes up our reality and the perception of the individual, through the commodification of the self, complete with a user manual.
Picture
Death + Prosperity 
90 x 120 cm 
Inkjet and Paint on Linen
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Death + Prosperity alludes to shared experiences and ambitions, imbued with traditional cultural symbolism. The work is stripped back in comparison to the rest of the exhibition as he confronts the viewer with a lone skull carrying digital memories in a deserted plain.
The skeleton of our past actions is always tangibly present, reminding the viewer to focus on the ‘now’, even in the newfound fully screen-based realities which occupy our idea of modern life. The addictive nature of on-screen presence has been metamorphized as Hjelm manipulates the linen to adhere horns onto the stretcher; giving body to the decaying ethereal. Death + Prosperity is a reduction of the digital and physical realm to their basic carnal desires, exploring objecthood through the deprivation of presence.
Picture
Refreshing 
130 x 170 cm 
Inkjet and Paint on Linen
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Refreshing is a heavily overprinted conglomeration of text and imagery, which erodes to expose a factotum of nature. The scanned cactus punctures the surface of the image breaking through the noise of information, offering a respite and consideration of digital consumption. The perpetual refreshing of a feed is a prehistoric overload creating hunter-gatherers of serotonin. A constant search for something new and exciting causes shorter attention spans and a lack of attention towards what has already been consumed.
The simplicity of the white and black text draws stark comparison to the green and blue colour palette which alludes to what would typically be considered ‘refreshing’. The physical structure and interplay of surface imagery creates an exciting conflict between rest and activity, the brief moment where one page disappears, and another emerges on the screen.

About the Artist

Thomas Hjelm (b. 1992) is a half-Swedish, London born and raised artist. His structural artworks combine the practices of Painting and Print. Hjelm has a Master’s degree from Royal College of Art, and a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art.
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In 2021 he exhibited at and curated the London Grads Now 21 show at the Saatchi Gallery, he was shortlisted for the Ashurst Art Prize, and was awarded a residency with Roman Road Gallery in 2020. He has exhibited widely across London, including the Soho Revue Gallery, Cromwell Place, and the Southwark Park Gallery. ​
Head on over to his website:
https://www.thomashjelm.com

And make sure to give him a follow:
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About the Curator

Niya Ruseva (b.1998) is an art historian from Bulgaria, currently based in London. Ruseva has a Master’s degree in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and a BA in History of Art from University College London. 
In 2021, Ruseva started working for JD Malat Gallery, developed the education platform for Pandora Art Services, was a contributing writer for the Made In Bed Magazine, and participated in the Emerging Artists Project launched by the Ashurst Art Prize, where she met with Hjelm. ‘Hold Me Closer’ is the debut curation for Ruseva.


Make sure to follow her on:
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  • Home
  • Exhibitions
    • Five Times More - Margaret Scott
    • Hold Me Closer - Thomas Hjelm
    • Perpetual - Sueyon Yang
    • Disembody - Thiago Sancho
    • Liminal Spaces - Maryam Hina Hasnain
    • AEAP2021 Winners >
      • Spiritus Mundi - Charles Inge
      • Moving:Still - Alexandra Harley
      • Topographies of Fragility - Ingrid Weyland
      • Tartarus - Grete Hjorth-Johansen
    • AEAP2021 Shortlist
    • The Rio Series - Caio Locke
    • Meridian Skylines - Caio Locke
  • Contact
  • Purchase Artwork