No parpadee
Solo show by Silvia Olabarría
No parpadee
Solo show by Silvia Olabarría
13 April - 12 May 2023
Credits
Elena Feduchi
How is a painting built? How does the artist face emptiness? How is form created from nothing? These are questions that bring us closer to Silvia's work since we started being familiar with her practice. In different series, in different formats, at least one of these questions have helped us assimilate her work. If we had to point out elements that make us intimate with her practice, we would certainly have to mention humor, tenacity and courage; the aforementioned questions can be read from these three adjectives.
Very often, we forget the process of creation in pursuit of the result, as if the finished work is a magical act of appearance. But painting –what we consider good painting– cannot exist without a confronting process, one that goes back and forth and, if everything goes well, ends up with a solid work. Silvia's long trajectory has made her familiar with these nooks and crannies and that is why this exhibition is anchored in her creative process. Lately, she understands painting as an exercise in which signs, signals, stains and marks confront each other in a sort of controlled arbitrariness.
A capacity for ambiguity has allowed Silvia to move between languages understood as contradictory (figuration - abstraction), that capacity is what turns this exhibition more the backstage than the proscenium. After the series of work, “y vosotros", that was presented at el Chico in 2021 Silvia began to explore the deconstruction of the figure building an almost obsessive interest in the synthetic of the form – how it is created and how it combines with other elements to create aesthetic pleasure. Collage has always been key to her artistry, and it is the cuts and juxtapositions of different papers that lead her to play with the stencil. She could not stop teasing out all the possibilities of cutting and materials. It is likely that the fragility of the first handmade stencils lead her to seek the perfection of laser cutting. These stencils, now made with precision, were in the first instance tools for a pictorial process that she had set in motion. And here tenacity and courage come into play; processes are uncontrollable, it is in mistakes and accidents that you find what you were really looking for as an artist. The superimposition of cardboard shapes in a seemingly careless manner gave meaning to a search that was directed towards a goal, one that proved itself irrelevant.
How does the artist face the void? With great attention, trying not to blink so as not to miss all the possibilities the process itself offers. In the blink of an eye, emptiness disappears, it becomes a compendium of shapes, marks and signs, which are understood as a result but for which the process is entirely the point. This exhibition is a lesson in the creation of art.
Very often, we forget the process of creation in pursuit of the result, as if the finished work is a magical act of appearance. But painting –what we consider good painting– cannot exist without a confronting process, one that goes back and forth and, if everything goes well, ends up with a solid work. Silvia's long trajectory has made her familiar with these nooks and crannies and that is why this exhibition is anchored in her creative process. Lately, she understands painting as an exercise in which signs, signals, stains and marks confront each other in a sort of controlled arbitrariness.
A capacity for ambiguity has allowed Silvia to move between languages understood as contradictory (figuration - abstraction), that capacity is what turns this exhibition more the backstage than the proscenium. After the series of work, “y vosotros", that was presented at el Chico in 2021 Silvia began to explore the deconstruction of the figure building an almost obsessive interest in the synthetic of the form – how it is created and how it combines with other elements to create aesthetic pleasure. Collage has always been key to her artistry, and it is the cuts and juxtapositions of different papers that lead her to play with the stencil. She could not stop teasing out all the possibilities of cutting and materials. It is likely that the fragility of the first handmade stencils lead her to seek the perfection of laser cutting. These stencils, now made with precision, were in the first instance tools for a pictorial process that she had set in motion. And here tenacity and courage come into play; processes are uncontrollable, it is in mistakes and accidents that you find what you were really looking for as an artist. The superimposition of cardboard shapes in a seemingly careless manner gave meaning to a search that was directed towards a goal, one that proved itself irrelevant.
How does the artist face the void? With great attention, trying not to blink so as not to miss all the possibilities the process itself offers. In the blink of an eye, emptiness disappears, it becomes a compendium of shapes, marks and signs, which are understood as a result but for which the process is entirely the point. This exhibition is a lesson in the creation of art.
