Karyn Olivier

Born 1968 in Port of Spain/Trinidad, lives and works in Brooklyn/NY


Gallery:
Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas







Many of Karyn Olivier’s sculptures evoke routine and familiar objects like gymnastic equipment and playground apparatus. However, these mundane objects are decisively transformed, and invested with powerful metaphorical import. Olivier’s Seesaw, 2005, is a radically elongated, forty-foot metal seesaw. It is a riveting sculpture, but it also suggests functional playground equipment used by two people, typically with a mixture of hesitation and exuberance, ungainliness and grace. But because this sculptural seesaw is so long, the two “playmates” would seem very distant indeed. Connection and alienation, togetherness and startling solitude all coalesce. This is one of numerous times when Olivier accesses a girlish arena of playtime and fun, but for adult purposes of questioning both our drive toward and distance from others.

For Carnival Within, Olivier presents a working carousel, complete with a bright blue tented top and red and yellow trim. Unlike normal carousels, this one has no prancing horses, lions, ornate benches, or calliope music. Instead, it features a single simple chair, and the user can either sit or stand as it revolves in an achingly slow circle. Olivier’s stripped down, rinky-dink carousel, titled It’s not over ‘til it’s over, evokes sadness and loss, as well as stark questions of racial discrimination and economic privation, and it is worth noting that some of Olivier’s sculptures referencing playground equipment are based on photographs of run-down segregated playgrounds that black kids once used. This idiosyncratic carousel is also delightful, suggesting stubborn magic, wonderment, and celebratory joy as forces for sustenance and renewal. Karyn Olivier is originally from Trinidad, and her deep affinity for the annual carnival celebrations there is an important source for her complex work, which also involves excess, exaggeration, social sculptures, and aspects of performance.

 

Exhibitions | Bibliography

Exhibitions:
2009: Billboard Project (59 South), Houston/TX
2008: In the Public Realm, Public Art Fund, New York
2007: A Closer Look, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis/MO
2007: Black Light White Noise: Sound and Light in Contemporary Art, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston/TX

Bibliography:
Eleanor El Heartney, “Gwangju Biennale,” in Art in America, December 2008
Phillip Tinari, “Gwangju Biennale,” in Artforum, January 2008
Whitney Museum of American Art at Altria: 25 years, ed. by Adam Weinberg and Shamin M. Mamin, London 2008  
Black Light White Noise: Sound and Light in Contemporary Art, texts by Greg Tate, Romi Crawford, and Valerie Cassel Oliver, exh. cat. Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston/TX 2007