Painting
Olivia Robinson
State of Haze as a State of Being; Accuracy as an Impossibility
Olivia’s practice addresses aspects of the human condition, specifically the place in the mind that recalls memories and formulates dreams; the place that remembers and imagines in a fragmented manner. Her work draws a parallel between creative process and mannerisms of the mind and attempts to describe visually the flaws and characteristics of recollection. She is particularly interested in the feeling that is evoked when attempting to recall from hazy, grey areas in memory and endeavouring to string a timeline together with difficulty.
As the eye meanders through a seemingly formless plane, one might notice figures on the verge of visibility, with blurry forms creating uncertain atmospheres which are manifested in surfaces that are tactile for both eye and mind. Techniques of repetition and reduction are employed to build on notions of experience and growth. In Olivia’s endeavours with analog photography using imperfect cameras, a little or in some cases, a lot of information is lost. There are various components during the photographic process that decide what quantity of information is valuable enough to deliver an image. The disappearance of something makes something else visible.
Taking influence from a diversity of areas such as phenomenology, metaphysics, poetry and fictional literature, the various states of existence of her images are reflective of the various states of being that memory formation is affected by, with the reactivation of memories during sleep referencing that of nocturnal events. Olivia challenges the physicality of the images/objects conceived and collectively their dimensionality in presentation, with her interdisciplinary approach allowing for various physical manifestations of her research.