Dirigible, 1989
copper
45.0
x 35.0
x 25.0 cm
SOLD
Provenance
Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
Private collection, Canada
Exhibited
Bronwyn Oliver, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, 1993
Art critic Bruce James once called Bronwyn Oliver "Queen of the Uncanny", and the black copper sculpture 'Dirigible' (1998) is a wonderful example of her unique vision as a sculptor.
The easy, voluptuous curves of the work disguises the painstaking nature of the artist's process; twisting and welding the pliant copper wire to create the intricate metal weave. The microcosmic, complex surface of the work is an interface between the elegant form of the sculpture's overall shape and the internal cavity or void where the sculpture breathes. It is at once fragile and forbidding; crafted from metal and yet seemingly weightless. Oliver alludes to these intriguing tensions in the title of the work 'Dirigible' - a term for a blimp, or airship supported by its own buoyancy. The three dimensional presence of this work is so demanding that even the shadow that it produces is outstanding.
Hannah Fink wrote of Oliver's art: "It might seem facile to read her life, and her death, into the works, but she was so much like her work: simple yet complicated, fragile yet strong, eccentric though oddly straightforward."
Image courtesy of the artist's estate and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney