Consumed

(Swallow the Sky) About CONSUMED A solo exhibition by Thomas Hjelm Presented in correlation with Frieze London Souvenir 438 Space is proud to present Consumed (Swallow The Sky) , a solo exhibition by London-based artist Thomas Hjelm in correlation with Frieze London. The exhibition brings together a new body of work that examines surrender in its many forms: to desire, to nature, and to another person. At its centre is the idea that surrender can become a route to freedom — a moment in which the boundary of the self dissolves. Consumed explores the sensation of being completely enveloped by your surroundings: lost in desire, absorbed by nature, or staring at the sky until the distinction between yourself and your surroundings begins to collapse. Hjelm's paintings occupy the space between intimacy and vastness, where the self becomes both intensely present and almost absent. The imagery draws directly from archival call cards, the small advertisements once found in London telephone booths that promised connection, pleasure, and escape in a single glance. Hjelm strips these images of their original context, isolating their emotional charge: figures caught in states of ecstasy, eyes closed, mouths open in surrender. Desire is present, but its object is withheld. The space between anticipation and release becomes central to the exhibition. That tension is set against recurring motifs of the sky and the sea: vast, borderless, and constant. Where the figures strain towards contact, the sky offers another form of surrender — one without an object of desire, where the self simply dissipates. Across the exhibition, sea and clouds, body and atmosphere begin to merge, until the distinction between figure and environment becomes increasingly unstable. The show's emotional register draws on the Romantic sublime and Nietzsche's reading of intensity and surrender as forms of vitality rather than loss of control. Together, they frame surrender as an active act of release: a willingness to let go of the need to interpret, possess, or control an experience while it is happening. Hjelm builds this language from an archive of call cards, pages from Playgirl magazine, self-portraits, and photographs of the sky. Reworked, layered and abraded, these images become fragments of memory, suspended between recognition and disappearance. Technically, the exhibition marks a significant shift in Hjelm's practice. This year, he has moved towards a more flattened surface, moving away from the physical layering, tearing and reconstruction that defined the depth of his earlier work. In Consumed , depth is instead created through the accumulation, repetition and manipulation of imagery. The result is a more distilled technical language, where physical intervention gives way to the gradual erosion and transformation of the image over time. PV: 9th Oct | 6 - 9pm Souvenir 438 space | 5 Kingsland Rd, London. E2 8AA Read more Toggle Painting