Jennings Kerr, Robertson, Australia
Quiet Company
25 February - 20 March 2022

Somewhere Deep Inside Exhibition Essay Excerpt. Read full essay here.
By James Kerr, Jennings Kerr, 2022.

‘Quiet Company’ as a show looks at the importance of family and companionship, the ceramic vessels contain stories of the past and seek to help the artist with dislocation and self-identification. Continuing to speak Afrikaans with her family as well as using it as a title system in her art practice, creates a means of remaining actively connected to the Afrikaans culture. The artist emigrated to Australia in 2007 and has since remained in contact with many family members still in South Africa while also establishing a new life and culture in Australia. At a younger age while in South Africa, Olivier would frequently visit the Kruger National Park and explore the patterns and colour found in the wild. Many years later and in the Australian landscape, Olivier began to notice similarities with these earlier experiences in South Africa and this flared up nostalgia for her childhood. These ceramics are a means of exploring this connection and a literal representation of her multi-cultural identity. The work A Dazzle, 2021 is a brilliant optical experience that mimics the movement and pattern of a herd of zebras in their confusing camouflage. This piece is able to sign personal history while exploring notions of companionship in nature. Here the pattern is by necessity and in repetition works in order to disorient predators on the plains. The grouping of Groen Pampoentjies (Green Sea Urchins), 2021 is connected to the artist surveying rock pools with her family as a kid. The hand glazed and etched vessels once again mirror the surface patterning while the hand coiled ceramic speaks to the complex plate formed protective shell. Olivier would spend many hours trying to find intact shells and these memories are deeply rooted.