Olivia Bax: Handrailing

The New Art Centre, Roche Court Sculpture Park, London

Sept 14 – Nov 10, 2024

Olivia Bax’s Handrailing at the New Art Centre is a refreshingly playful yet thoughtful exhibition that subverts the conventional expectations of sculpture. Bax, known for using unconventional materials like paper pulp and chicken wire, brings a tactile energy to her work, creating an interplay between the solid and the linear. Her sculptures, with their unexpected twists and forms, offer a visual journey that mimics the exhibition’s title, a term from orienteering that suggests navigating through space. Bax’s pieces invite viewers to reorient their perspectives as they move through the gallery.

The work in Handrailing is as much about the process as it is about the finished form. Bax’s use of welding and assembling materials into dynamic compositions evokes a sense of motion, as if the sculptures are in flux, suspended between stages of creation. This focus on transition and exploration mirrors her artistic process, where she pushes boundaries by using lightweight, recycled materials to create pieces that challenge the traditional gravitas of sculpture. In this, she plays with ideas of physical and conceptual balance, as her forms occupy the liminal spaces between the interior and exterior, the organic and the constructed.

There’s an evident influence from Bax’s time working with Anthony Caro, but her approach feels distinctly hers. Her works are more than just objects in space; they are worlds unto themselves, quirky and provocative, questioning the rules of their medium. The title Handrailing feels apt, as Bax leads us along her sculptural path, encouraging viewers to question their perceptions of materiality, form, and the nature of sculpture itself. The result is an exhibition that is both conceptually rich and visually engaging.