maj de tout
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 4.3 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 9.5 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 8.2 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 8.8 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 4.5 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 7.2 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 5.7 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 8.8 MiB |
|
After Width: | Height: | Size: 8.4 MiB |
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
date: '08-08-2018 18:04'
|
||||
date_end: '24-08-2018 18:05'
|
||||
lieux: '93 Baker Street'
|
||||
title: 'at large,'
|
||||
artistes: 'Olivia Bax'
|
||||
media_order: 'Olivia Bax, Boulder (with handle), 2015.jpg,Detail of Olivia Bax, Hot Spot, 2018.jpg,Olivia Bax, Love Handles, 2017.jpg,Olivia Bax, Pump, 2016.jpg,Olivia Bax, Slot _ Groove, 2015.jpg,Olivia Bax, Rumble, 2018.jpg,Installation Olivia Bax.jpg,Detail ''Footloose'', 2017.jpg,Olivia Bax, Footloose, 2017.jpg'
|
||||
show_sidebar: false
|
||||
aura:
|
||||
pagetype: website
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
An awareness of materials is crucial in pursuing any artistic endeavour.
|
||||
The capacity of the artist to resonate with their medium while grasping its
|
||||
true potential occurs through careful observation, during which a full
|
||||
understanding of its chemical properties, durability, and texture proceeds.
|
||||
For the painter or the etcher, the mental is translated into the physical
|
||||
realm predominately with the aid of utensils. The sculptor however relies
|
||||
less on this mediating process, for it is the tactile, his very own hand which
|
||||
possesses the knowledge to manipulate and assemble substance. It comes
|
||||
as no surprise that the greatest innovations in sculpture of the past century
|
||||
resulted from an increasing immediacy towards the generative process
|
||||
manifest through methods such as direct casting (Medardo Rosso) and
|
||||
carving (Constantin Brâncuşi) or the collection of novel, unconventional
|
||||
materials for further assembly (Iza Genzken). Olivia Bax's work is a
|
||||
distinct example of this aesthetic manu propria, for Bax not only
|
||||
physically leaves the imprint of her hand, her gestures on the surface of her
|
||||
sculptures, but she also uses handles as a recurring motif (Hot Spot,
|
||||
Boulder (with handle) and Pump). Her stand-alone pieces (Rumble and
|
||||
Roar) have a human scale, as if they were based on her own height.
|
||||
|
||||
Bax's investigation of material rhythms can be likened to the act of
|
||||
sketching, of which the varying tempo, the drawing and selective retracing
|
||||
of preferred parts, aid in the development of her sculptural pieces. There is
|
||||
an unprecedented fascination with the armature of her pieces, which she
|
||||
does not completely conceal with the malleable paper pulp, opting rather
|
||||
for the visibility of the different processes. The sculptures are activated not
|
||||
only through the revealing of their anatomy and the material dialectic that
|
||||
ensues, but also through their humanistic dimensions. Scale holds a
|
||||
significant role within Bax's oeuvre, evoking both the domestic, and trying
|
||||
to escape from it by experimenting with site-specific height. The work Footloose, having been previously installed twice, is now refashioned to
|
||||
accommodate the low ceilings of this space while still slightly protruding
|
||||
through the support grid. Bax's work is at large not only through its
|
||||
diversity, resembling a smaller retrospective, but also through the sheer
|
||||
dimension of the space (the largest space she has exhibited in thus far),
|
||||
which allows for the sculptures to escape confinement. There is sufficient
|
||||
expanse within the gallery for the works to exist as individual entities,
|
||||
while simultaneously undergoing a mutual, collective activation. Palisade,
|
||||
the blue fence-like structure suggests a tripartite segmentation of the
|
||||
sculptural environment while similarly acting as a chromatic backdrop for
|
||||
works such as the aforementioned Footloose, and a three-dimensional
|
||||
framing for Slot & Groove. This seemingly divisive curatorial choice
|
||||
however, conversely facilitates discourse between the sculptures of the
|
||||
ensemble, acting not as a barrier, but rather as an interactional tool.
|
||||
|
||||
Bax's work extends beyond the removal of a sculpture from its pedestal as
|
||||
the sole source for immediacy. By imprinting her hands onto the surface of
|
||||
the work and using her height as a unit of measurement, by exposing
|
||||
diverse layers of materials causing thus an interaction within the anatomy
|
||||
of the work itself, and subsequently one within its collective pairing, the
|
||||
artist creates a cycle closed off by the viewer. Within her process of
|
||||
making, Bax activates herself, the space, the works and viewers, whether
|
||||
at a local level or at large.
|
||||
|
||||
Words by Smaranda Ciubotaru
|
||||