Bronwyn Oliver

Bound, 1994
copper
35 x 48 x 18 cm

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Provenance
The Artist, Épernay, France
Christine Abrahams Gallery, Sydney
Acquired from the above by the present owner on 27 October 1995

Exhibited
Bronwyn Oliver, Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne, 1995

Literature
Hannah Fink, Bronwyn Oliver – Strange Things, Piper Press, Sydney, 2017, p.114 & 219

In 1994, Bronwyn Oliver received the prestigious Moet & Chandon Fellowship, part of which was a year-long residency at a house in Épernay, France. It was during this residency that she created Bound, which the writer Hannah Fink describes as “like a parcel of flesh held together with tight straps”. (Hannah Fink, Bronwyn Oliver: Strange Things, 2017, p. 116). It relates strongly to a 1993 work, Breather which Oliver had made in Sydney – but Bound is differentiated both by the techniques used to create it, and the sources of inspiration for the work which Oliver encountered in Europe.

Over Christmas in 1994, Oliver travelled to Barcelona, discovering that the architect Antoni Gaudi had come from a coppersmithing family. Driving through the south of France, Oliver saw at Chatillon sur Seine the Etruscan Vix Krater, the largest bronze wine vessel ever discovered. The Vix Krater was clearly formed by being beaten from an original cast piece of bronze, and reminded Oliver of the various pieces she was working on in Épernay. On her return, Oliver requested oxy-acetylene or copper-welding equipment and began heating sheet metal, hammering it into large, curved forms. Having associated this practice with Gaudi and the ancient Etruscans, Oliver saw this work as freeing, a release from her then typical practice of working with fine threads of metal: “It was quite a relief after weeks of fine, detailed concentration to be able to swing a hammer over an anvil.” (Hannah Fink, Bronwyn Oliver: Strange Things, 2017, p. 114)

While much of Oliver’s work is meditative, evoked by the meticulous, wiry nature of her sculptures, this work is instead more a meditation on history and the traditions of metalwork. It was something that she was always drawn to. Many years earlier, Oliver wrote in an application for an academic scholarship on ancient metalwork, “I am interested in the time when metal was just new and useful, before the time when it became decorative. The time when the struggle between metal, heat and human hands is still evident in the form.” (Hannah Fink, Bronwyn Oliver: Strange Things, 2017, p. 79.)

by Jack Howard

Courtesy of The estate of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photography by Geoff Boccalatte

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When Bronwyn Oliver enrolled to study painting at Sydney's Alexander Mackie College in 1977, a computer error assigned her to the school's sculpture department instead. A fortuitous glitch indeed, since the young artist was not only instantly taken with three-dimensional media, but also went on to become one of Australia's most significant sculptors.

Oliver was an artist of unique vision, and had an extraordinarily focused commitment to her practice. When she died in 2006 at age 47 she left a legacy of nearly three decades of outstanding work, including both domestic sculptures and ambitiously-scaled commissions such as 'Vine' which spirals 16.5 meters from the ceiling of Sydney's Hilton Hotel.

After graduating from art school in Sydney, Oliver completed her Masters of Art at Chelsea School of Art in London in 1983. In 1993 she was selected for the inaugural Beijing Biennale, and in 1994 she was the recipient of the prestigious Moet & Chandon Fellowship. Her signature organic metal sculptures are now held in most major public collections in Australia as well as many important national and international private and corporate collections. A significant retrospective of her work was held at the McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery in 2005, and in 2006 Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery held the memorial exhibition 'Bronwyn Oliver 1959 - 2006'.

Oliver said of her art: "When the ideas, the formal elements and the medium all work together a sculpture will 'sing' with a kind of rightness. It takes on a life, a presence, which is removed from this world. It belongs to a mythical other life, without a place in time."