When I first saw this work, it almost passed me by, because of its ethereal delicacy – or magic! – so that it nearly fades into its surroundings… But once you see it, it immediately becomes this participant (of sorts) in the theatre of nature. Just like the sky is always there and we could spend all day looking at it, this work by Bronwyn Oliver stretches over us in its elegant and profound way.
Oliver looks at how to transform alive, organic forms (like a Comet) into still metal recreations. Fascinated by the use of empty space, she draws our attention to the inside of her artworks, energizing the emptiness within her sculptures and imploring us to question our relationship to it. What would a comet look like if we were to witness it in real life? Would we ever be able to capture it with our sight? What would it feel like? How does it dissipate the closer it gets to the sun, and is it ever something whole?
Something scholars have pointed to is the correlation between Oliver’s art and her background as an expert knitter and dressmaker. As Oliver once said: ‘all that boofy bloke stuff: soldiering, welding, and bracing is all just stitching and sewing’. And with this, she claims the metal medium and produces something utterly elegant out of it. While Astronomy has historically been quite a male dominated practice, Oliver sews her comet together, recodifying something classically male into something appreciated by everyone.
I just love how quiet this work is. I think the Comet’s delicacy becomes its most imposing part – a rare feat in contemporary art.
