---
topH: false
date: '08-08-2018 18:04'
date_end: '24-08-2018 18:05'
lieux: '93 Baker Street'
artistes: 'Olivia Bax'
title: 'at large,'
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'
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---

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