« My initial works had already explored an interaction with space. I could have continued creating collages, but I realized that with wood, for it is flexible, I could keep developping my work in order to confront the idea of movement in space. »
The experience that the artist provides, usually articulated around a form of narrative, suggests today that we follow the paths of the unconscious. This choice to veer towards abstraction is deliberate, revealing the artist’s desire to present a reflection on representation itself ; to venture into reality not under its denoted aspect (sign) but connoted one (symbol) ; to allude to the organic nature of things in constant movement, endlessly renewed. The works on display further highlight the extraordinary dichotomy between the natural and artificial, art and reality.
Often discarded as pipe dreams, Oliveira's installations and sculptures are like plural organisms, bearing multiple meanings and interpretations, sometimes even metaphysical. Condensation (2011-2015) — a sculpture composed of a block of eleven materials vertically juxtaposed, revealing at the heart of the piece a foamy cloud — is a physical incarnation of a revolving dream.
« The disemboweled mattresses form the process of condensation, but they cannot be detached from their role as somewhere to sleep. Dreams have no real shape. They cannot be controlled, they happen to us. »
Beginning with his very first sketches, Oliveira has been interested in movement. From Van Gogh to the impressionists, the action natural forces can have on the environment, the effects of organic life within urban landscapes, the tension between the arts and institutions that present them — are all interrogations present in the artist’s work. Similarly, Fissure (2015), its cracks on the wall limited by a frame, symbolizes the space determined by representation, an infinite dialogue with the imperceptible nature of things.
« At night, when I paint, I sometimes take a break. It is during these moments that ideas come to me. Then I begin drawing. These ideas are not always easy to realize. They may prove difficult to represent on a sheet of paper. I first need to internalize the process of creation, the matter at stake. »
Whilst some pieces take about 8 years to create, it is the technical aspect that is, at one moment or another, limited. Ideas that are too complicated to produce is Oliveira’s main constraint : « To work within a defined framework allows me to paradoxically produce more quickly, and better. I have to make choices, take decisions. I am indecisive anyway. »
The framework does not end at the physical edges of an artwork. Beyond the museum or gallery housing Oliveira’s work, in order for the artist to express himself, Henrique must integrate into his artistic process the exhibition’s practical parameters.
With this in mind, the exhibition « Fissure », on from October 19 until November 28 2015, offers visitors greater insights into their own experience of vision, led by the humility of a sensitive artist, displaying his desire to go beyond initial possibilities, to transcend the limits of the known world.
All photos © m e l a n i e c r a v e r o
