Veje der krydses Crossroads OLIVER. Skulpturer og raderinger

Veje der krydses Crossroads OLIVER Skulpturer og raderinger Odense Valgmenighed 2015

2 Three Cultures, 2006

Introduktion til udstillingen Veje der krydses Når to veje mødes, er der også to veje at gå. Så et vejkryds, en korsvej, er det sted, hvor man kan mødes eller hvor man skilles. Disse betydninger ligger i det engelske ord: CROSSROAD. Og derfor hedder den udstilling, som Odense Valgmenighed med glæde byder ind til: Veje der krydses, eller på engelsk Crossroads, for kunstneren Perry Oliver har alle aspekter med i sine skulpturer. Oliver er fra USA, men har levet de sidste 45 år i Andalusien i Sydspanien. Han er optaget af, hvordan vi kan leve sammen i forskellige kulturer og forskellige religioner uden at blive fjendtlige overfor hinanden. At tro og at have en tro er at have tillid, - til Gud og til mennesker. Men ikke nødvendigvis at ville have ret eller skulle have ret. Oliver lever og arbejder i Andalusien. Det var den sidste provins i Spanien, hvor de muslimske maurere havde hjemme, inden de blev fordrevet af kongeparret Isabella og Ferdinand i 1492. Næsten samtidig blev alle Spaniens jøder fordrevet. Derfor er Andalusien et særligt sted i Europa, for her har jødedom, kristendom og islam levet side om side i århundreder, inden den katolske kongemagt slog til med sværd og udrensning. Når vi på dansk i 2015 bruger ordet korsvej, så vil det kunne forstås på flere måder. Ja, vore veje skilles ved selve ordet, fordi vi forstår det forskelligt. Der er en særlig kristen fromhedstradition, hvor man vil forstå ordet korsvej som den lidelsesvej, Jesus gik langfredag. Han gik, siger man, med tværbjælken til korset ad Via Dolorosa ud til sin henrettelse på Golgata. Denne lidelsesvej blev til et religiøst symbol, som man husker ved en årlig gudstjeneste i den romersk-katolske kirke. I alle katolske kirker har man små billeder på begge langsider med i alt 14 korsvejsstationer, som man langfredag vandrer forbi, mens man gør ophold ved hver station. Her læses et stykke fra Jesu lidelseshistorie og der holdes en lille meditation, også over den lidelse, der er i verden nu. Med blandt andet denne langfredagstradition kom ordet korsvej til at få en symbolsk betydning, nemlig som et billede på den modgang, et menneske kan komme ud for, hvor der er lidelser og smerte. Men ordet korsvej betyder jo også ganske enkelt et vejkryds. I folkeeventyrerne står hovedpersonen tit ved en korsvej. Et sted, hvor der skal træffes en beslutning om, hvilken vej man skal gå. Man kan gå lige ud eller til højre eller til venstre. Tit er den lille helt eller heltinde i eventyret i stor tvivl om, hvilken vej, de skal vælge. Men så er der gerne en gammel mand eller en gammel kone eller måske et lille dyr, der kan hjælpe. Så at stå ved en korsvej er et kendt dansk billede for det at skulle træffe et valg. Oliver Perry er skulptør og grafisk kunstner. De skulpturer og kobberraderinger, der udstilles i Odense Valgmenighed har korsform som gennemgående motiv. Men det er kors, der er åbne, for korset er åben for fortolkning. Det er kors, der er organiske; ja, som var de levende. Det er kors, der næsten har menneskeskikkelse, for tro og tillid handler om mennesker og vores liv med hinanden. Alle disse kors er åbne i deres form. Ofte er det i fraværet af materiale, at korsformen træder frem. Korsene er runde i formen og på vej, for her er der ingen fjendtlighed, men en solidarisk vandren side om side med hinanden. Kors- skulpturerne udstilles sammen med Olivers grafik. Her mødes kors, davidstjerne og halvmåne i en dynamisk harmoni. Det er udtryk for en tillid til, at Gud omfavner sine mennesker på de veje, vi krydser gennem livet. Inger Hjuler Bergeon Januar 2015 3

4 Three cultures V, 2006 1:1

Oliver: En mand og stålet Lad os glemme tingene og kun give opmærksom til forholdene. Georges Braque Oliver begyndte at lave skulpturer for femten år siden med en intens passion til at materialisere lagene af grafikerens blæk, som i en ren bevægelse sprang af papiret, til en plade af metal. Hans første arbejde med plader af stål var en direkte, ubrudt transposition af hans raderinger; det var tilstrækkeligt, ikke kun teknisk, at løse problemet med rumligt design. Materialet pålægger dets lov, og han, der lærer tilegner sig, men der er mere i materialet, der bestemmer retningen af vores muligheder. Fra udviklingen af nogle stykker, vi kan sige i en bogstavelig oversættelse, begyndte levende former af stål at gro frem. Olivers valg af materiale til hans værker blev da definitive. Vægten, tilstedeværelsen, den direkte lighed i lagene af planer gjorde stålet til materialet for hans første udforskning i skulpturer. Det kunne være sket som hos Chillida, der begyndte hans rejse med stål før noget andet materiale, der havde hørt amboltens kalden med en nødvendighed til at bøje det sorte materiale med den rene kraft fra en hammer. Oliver søgte efter en metode, hvor stålet ville tilknytte sig til ham, som var han ankommet fra et andet sted, en fremmed i et hjemland af jern for at blive en indbygger i de hemmelige rum af vindens hjørner, lade det træde ind i hans egen fædrene kultur af at tegne, modellere og samle mulighederne af et møde, båndet mellem et hårdt mørkt uhyre og en mand, der omfavner lyset. Kravene fra uhyret kom hurtigt i crescendo og gik, som hos Chillida, ind i et helligt rum, alt imens Oliver gik ind i labyrinten. Og han gjorde det, som fornyligt selvproklameret Martin Chirina, en sortsmed af kunst, ved at sætte sin egen fod ned i rummet af skulpturer. Ligesom Chillida holder fast, eller omfavner det tomme rum, helliggør det, så skaber Oliver former, der omfavner hans åbne rum. Oliver har været i stand til at give form til hans billedsprog i skulpturerne med afsæt i de rumlige forhold, der er skabt i hans grafiske arbejde, hvor en veludviklet dynamik med kraftfulde konstruktioner og kompositionelle mekanismer tilegner sig strukturen og balancen i deres kombinationer. Maleren og skulptøren Antonio Lopez siger i en tilsyneladende simpel om end klarsynet refleksion en skulptur er ikke alene ét udtryk, de er mange udtryk. Et afgørende spring imod en symbolsk form; alle udtrykkene i et, alle linjerne er kun én formation. De valgte motiver er ekstremt rige og komplekse, når de tages ét for ét, eller set sammen i et unisont hele: korset, den sekskantede stjerne og den halve måne. Fernando de la Rosa, kunstmaler Málaga 2014 Henvisning: Den fulde tekst kan læses bagerst i kataloget. 5

6 Three Cultures I, 2014 1:1

Cross and crossroads, 2014 7

8 Wandering Star, 2014

Open Crescents, 2014 9

10 He, his Cross VIII, 2010

He, his Cross XI, 2012 11

12 Cross of the Perfect Couple, 2008

Pause, 2008 13

14 Toward Cross II, 2010

Crescent, 2008 15

16 Lateral Cross III, 2008

Cross with Cross, 2009 17

18 Toward Star II, 2014

Inner Star II, 2008 Open Star II, 2014 19

20 Three Cultures VII, 2006 1:1

Large etching of Three Cultures, 2012 1:2 21

22 He, his Cross, 2008

Toward Cross, 2006 23

24 Open Cross, 2011

She, her Cross, 2010 25

26 Assembly of Stars, 2006 2008

Procession, 2009-2010 27

Introduction to the exhibition Veje der krydses - Crossroads When two roads are crossing, there are two ways to go. So a road cross, a crossroad, is a place where one can meet, or where one separates. These meanings are inherent in the English word Crossroad, so that is how to define the title of the exhibition which Odense VM has the pleasure to invite for Veje der krydses, or in English Crossroads, because Oliver, the artist, has all aspects included in his art. Oliver is from USA, but has lived the past 45 years in Andalusia of Southern Spain. He gives attention toward how we can live together in different cultures and different religions without being hostile to each other. To believe and to have Faith is to have confidence in God and in Human Beings. But not necessarily to demand one s own Right, nor to be Right. Oliver lives and works in Andalusia. This place was the last Region in Spain where the Muslim Moorish had their homes, before they were expelled by the Royal couple Isabella and Ferdinand in 1492. Almost simultaneously all Spanish Jews were expelled. That makes Andalusia a special place in Europe, because throughout centuries the Judaism, Christianity and Islam lived here side by side, before the Catholic Kingdom hit against them with the sword and purge. When we in Danish in 2015 use the word Crossroad, it can be understood in multiple ways. Yes, our roads separate by the word itself, because we understand it differently. There is a special Christian tradition of piety, where the word crossroads is to be understood as the Road of Sufferings, which Jesus walked on Good Friday. In a saying, he walked with the cross-beam for the cross via Dolorosa all the way to his execution at Golgotha. This suffering-road became a religious symbol to be remembered at an annual service in the Roman-Catholic Church. All Catholic churches have small images on both sides with the 14 crossroad stations to walk by on Good Friday. Reading pieces of the Passion of Christ, with a brief meditation, as well for the world s sufferings today. Among other traditions of this Good Friday the word Crossroad became significant symbolically as an image of human suffering, which we might experience, where suffering and pain exist. But the word crossroad also means very simple a cross road. In folk tales the protagonist often stands at a crossroad, a place where one has to make a decision: which way to go? One can go straight, or to the right, or to the left. Often the little hero in a fairytale in a big forest doubts which way to choose. But often then an old man, or an old woman, or perhaps a little animal is able to help. Standing by a Crossroad is a well-known image for being obliged to make a choice. Oliver is a Sculptor and Graphic Artist. These sculptures and etchings exhibited in Odense Valgmenighed have the form of crosses as a continuous motive. But it is Crosses that are open, because the Cross is open for an interpretation. It is Crosses which are organic, yes, like they were alive. It is Crosses which almost have the shape of Human Beings, because Faith and Confidence is about human beings and our lives together. All these crosses are open in their form. Often it is in the absence of material that the Cross shape appears. The Crosses are formed embracing, on their way, because here is no hostility, instead there is a solidarity wandering side by side with each other. The Cross-sculptures are exhibited together with Oliver s Graphics. Here meets the Cross, Star of David and the Crescent Moon in a dynamic harmony. This is an expression of confidence that God embraces his Human Beings on roads that we all cross throughout our lives. Inger Hjuler Bergeon Januar 2015 28

OLIVER: a man and the steel Let us forget the things and only attend the relationships. Georges Braque Oliver came to sculpture fifteen years ago with the intense desire to materialize in a sheet of metal the layers of printmaker s ink that, in pure movement, were jumping off the paper. His first work with sheets of steel was a direct, unbroken transposition of his etchings; that was sufficient and not only technically to resolve the problem of spatial design. The material imposes its law, and he who learns submits, but there is more in the material that determines the direction of our options. From the development of some pieces, we might say in a literal translation, living forms of steel began to grow. Oliver s choice of material for his work then became definitive. The weight, the presence, the direct analogy in layers of planes, made steel the material of his first adventure in sculpture. It could have happened to Chillida who began his journey with steel before any other material, having heard the call of the anvil with an urge to bend the glowing black material by the pure force of the hammer. Oliver looked for a method where the steel would adapt to him, as if he was arriving from another place, a stranger in a ferric homeland, to become a resident in secret alcoves at the corners of the wind, letting it enter into his own ancestral culture to draw, model, and assemble the possibilities of an encounter, the bonding between a hard dark beast and a man who embraces the light. The demands of the beast were rapidly in crescendo and, like Chillida, went into the sacred space as Oliver went into the labyrinth. And he did it as recently auto-proclaimed Martin Chirino, blacksmith of art, by putting his own foot into the spaces of sculpture. If Chillida holds onto or embraces empty space, sanctifying it, Oliver designs around his open spaces. Oliver has been able to give form to his imagery in sculpture departing from the spatial relationships created in his prints, where dynamics with forceful constructional and compositional mechanisms were developed, assimilating the structure and balance in their combinations. The painter and sculptor Antonio Lopez says in an apparently simple yet lucid reflection. A sculpture is not only one image, they are many images. A decisive leap toward symbolic form; all the images in one, all the shapes in only one formation. The selected motifs are extremely rich and complex taken one by one and when not, then seen together in unison: the cross, the six-pointed star and the half moon. In the poetry of signs, Oliver accepts the syncretism of the cross with its crossing of concepts which confront themselves in the crossroad. Crosses and crossroads are pathways that our sculptor already had traveled in the graphic work. His paths alternated in black and white, advancing and withdrawing in bands between the volumes of emerging forms or deep within the diminishing space of shadows, not unlike they do in the blocks and bands interwoven in the canvases of Sean Scully. In the mission with sculpture, Oliver crosses two concepts, two opposing complimentary questions, like the two transversals of the same cross: the object and the idea; the physical reality of the material is crossed by the imaginative impulse of the idea in a new conceptual play that gives birth to new artistic creatures to delight our aesthetic sensibility, placing us at the same crossroad as its path through a human world. Right there is where it is to cross the forms; the sculptor has to make a decision, as if the forms were paths where each one concentrates the energy of change: the form that will be chosen and the one to be abandoned. Both are transformed in one singular form; the options become welded by the choice and the direction continues ahead. To select is to give form, to renounce the void, which in a way, converts all other possibilities into the unknown. The element defines itself by the sureness of the selection; nonetheless, the image that comes forth sways or stabilizes which seems to engender new versions of itself. With natural ease and without aesthetic or formal fuss, Oliver intends to give the sculpture room for all the imaginative in Being that, as human beings, lives in the uncertainty of a crossroad, like relationships it lives between space and its mass, or more precisely, between the idea and its own self as an image. Oliver says: I see friendship 29

as a crossroad. All are important for what they contribute. There are perpendicular ones, intense but do not last long. There are the almost parallel ones with their two arms side-by-side to the horizon and beyond. In between these there are many distinct kinds, and each relationship gives and receives according to its nature. In the sculpture He, his Cross (2008) the man converts into cross, or is it that the cross has become a man? The weight of the symbol has been bent-over in the image, giving-in to the demands of plasticity, making the cross carry itself with human resignation. They are not two but instead only one in its duality, as we are ourselves, when the friend returns to us our own reflected image. How essential this indispensable reflection is for oneself. In the realm of the cross, we cannot avoid that the symbol multiplies in analogies due to the form and function that is conferred upon it in different cultures, for instance the Christian. The cross owes its shape to sacrifice, hence it has the human form, and seeing the cross evokes the image of Man, who adopts the shape of the cross to which he remains nailed. Oliver casts together man and cross in one image, full of symbolism, humanizing the structure, giving it an Otherness, duplicating it as a reflection, where the very act of dying is traced as the figure s own image. To the spectator these acts of the cross suggest the intangible presence of the element of time, simultaneously inducing a sensitivity to the breath of life in the material, separating it from the geometry which, when distilled, yielded that hyper cubic cross (tesseract) of Salvador Dalí, a profoundly valid crossroad of art and mathematics, with which art approaches the fourth dimension, like the distant echo of some painters who followed the steps of cubism upon an esoteric-mathematical promise. In brief, it is the acting upon an inner life of the material that converts the form to endow it with a symbolic dimension. In some instances, this dimension is embodied in the anthropomorphic. With masterful drawing, in some of his pieces, Oliver approaches a simplified structure with which he adopts a surprisingly lively and expressive anatomy. We can see this wonder of artistic sensibility in the series He, his Cross VIII (2010) and He, his Cross XII (2012). In the interplay that combines elements of a cubic body, as might have been conceived by Léger or Malevich himself, the volume is simplified into the minimum of elements that can be articulated with which to endow the body with movement and drama. That situation does not alter one bit the grace of these prostrated beings nor the sober elegance of their concentration under the weight of their own crosses. In his assembly Procession (2009-10), four pieces of the same series make a procession in front of a tall and graceful mast-like cross, one that rises above them and, at the same time, inclines its head downward, a clear allusion to the agony of Christ. In the work Cross and Crossroad (2014) the figure of an elongated cross (Christ) enters into a space formed itself by a cross. This reverberating form, this provocative reflection supposes for the artist a crucial encounter with the origin and the theme of his crosses, manifesting simultaneously the poetic roots and introspective nature of his work. Both scenes can be seen or interpreted from multiple perspectives, but, as great works of art will do, they leave a resonant echo in the memory of a profound breath of life. From a subjective approach, the existence of the cubist in the sculpture of Oliver does not pursue geometric speculation or the playfulness of a purely aesthetic dance, but instead it is the discovery and construction of volumetric elements that are complimentary in space and in form; a good fortune of rhyme (remembering Juan Gris) in which a productive dialogue is obtained by duplicating or multiplying. With the dismembering of the theme in sculptures like Assembly of Stars (2006-2008), Inner Star (2012) or Open Star (2014), Oliver shows us at once the multiplicity of form and the complexity of idiom that articulates them, inviting the spectator to reconstruct, to recompose the visual structure that restores a vision of its origin, as a poetic rhyme does, returning to the final image an echo of its first words. In this way, the spectator, who is immersed in the language, creates subjective associations and accepts the playfulness in the rhythm that is created in the dialogue with an interactive acceptance between imagination and reality. 30

To the extent that these signs enjoy a profound symbolic essence, crosses, stars, and crescent moons are lifelike as images and, by consequence, are alive in the mind of the spectator, their meanings carved by the associations and analogies of ancient cultures with their religious and philosophic roots. With this exercise in sculpture, Oliver renews these associations and analogies, illuminating and discovering unusual aspects of the symbol by the invention of new shapes. The half-moon reposing on its own reflection in Open Crescents (2014) not only speaks to us of the reflection in collective silence, but also about the necessity of the Other, and only in the concurrence of this Other are we able to connect to our own selves. This poetic fragmentation we see revitalized in works like Inner Star (2012) or Pause (2008), where there is a balance between possibilities of openness and disintegration of form, converting the points of a broken star into a butterfly. Considering that the theme is constructed and is articulated from the aforesaid symbols, these sculptures of Oliver keep alive the bond between the object and the idea that sustains it, that which has been termed by the academics of symbolism as common rhythm, existing between two fundamental planes: of reality and of imagination. This rhythm is not a sensitive order in time, but rather constitutes an element of cohesion and of coherence between the two planes, between the two orders of language. The rhythm is the result of a vital and communicative tension that is transmitted between the image or the object created and the idea that upholds the reality. Accordingly, the rhythm can be understood as a series of methods or established values between various elements that have the same vital aspect, but it can also be considered as a spatial similarity or formal resemblance. In a broader sense, the meaning and sensation of rhythm in the work is explained by the existence of something that reminds and awakens an associative mental state. In this case, the established rhymes or methods let Oliver show us some of the connections that exist between the symbol with its significance and the objects it creates, whose appearance in our imaginary world illuminates for the first time unexpected analogies and associations. Apart from a certain monumental aspect, there are pieces among the sculptures of Oliver that possess with secrecy the simplicity of a talisman. Not only in small format work, like Crescent (2008), but in those with elements of great weight and complexity, like Open cross (2011), the design of exterior space appears full of mass when the rest is an inner space, which constitutes the true essence of the form. Braque said : the fortuitous reveals the existence. We see the light because obscurity exists; we only comprehend the light in the absence of it from the spark that illuminates from within. It happens when we find ourselves in front of a sculpture by Oliver. The presence of spaces makes us realize that everything is a dual construcción of the idea. We are not the material, of which we are made, but instead we are that of which we are not made, that which we make ourselves as Human Beings; and, in reality, we identify ourselves as part of the universe, which is what we are all made of. Fernando de la Rosa, painter 31

Oliver: En mand og stålet Lad os glemme tingene og kun give opmærksom til forholdene. Georges Braque Oliver begyndte at lave skulpturer for femten år siden med en intens passion til at materialisere lagene af grafikerens blæk, som i en ren bevægelse sprang af papiret, til en plade af metal. Hans første arbejde med plader af stål var en direkte, ubrudt transposition af hans raderinger; det var tilstrækkeligt, ikke kun teknisk, at løse problemet med rumligt design. Materialet pålægger dets lov, og han, der lærer tilegner sig, men der er mere i materialet, der bestemmer retningen af vores muligheder. Fra udviklingen af nogle stykker, vi kan sige i en bogstavelig oversættelse, begyndte levende former af stål at gro frem. Olivers valg af materiale til hans værker blev da definitive. Vægten, tilstedeværelsen, den direkte lighed i lagene af planer gjorde stålet til materialet for hans første udforskning i skulpturer. Det kunne være sket som hos Chillida, der begyndte hans rejse med stål før noget andet materiale, der havde hørt amboltens kalden med en nødvendighed til at bøje det sorte materiale med den rene kraft fra en hammer. Oliver søgte efter en metode, hvor stålet ville tilknytte sig til ham, som var han ankommet fra et andet sted, en fremmed i et hjemland af jern for at blive en indbygger i de hemmelige rum af vindens hjørner, lade det træde ind i hans egen fædrene kultur af at tegne, modellere og samle mulighederne af et møde, båndet mellem et hårdt mørkt uhyre og en mand, der omfavner lyset. Kravene fra uhyret kom hurtigt i crescendo og gik, som hos Chillida, ind i et helligt rum, alt imens Oliver gik ind i labyrinten. Og han gjorde det, som fornyligt selvproklameret Martin Chirina, en sortsmed af kunst, ved at sætte sin egen fod ned i rummet af skulpturer. Ligesom Chillida holder fast, eller omfavner det tomme rum, helliggør det, så skaber Oliver former, der omfavner hans åbne rum. Oliver har været i stand til at give form til hans billedsprog i skulpturerne med afsæt i de rumlige forhold, der er skabt i hans grafiske arbejde, hvor en veludviklet dynamik med kraftfulde konstruktioner og kompositionelle mekanismer tilegner sig strukturen og balancen i deres kombinationer. Maleren og skulptøren Antonio Lopez siger i en tilsyneladende simpel om end klarsynet refleksion en skulptur er ikke alene ét udtryk, de er mange udtryk Et afgørende spring imod en symbolsk form; alle udtrykkene i et, alle linjerne er kun én formation. De valgte motiver er ekstremt rige og komplekse, når de tages ét for ét, eller set sammen i et unisont hele: korset, den sekskantede stjerne og den halve måne. I tegnenes poesi accepterer Oliver synkretismen af korset, en sammensmeltning med dets krydsning af koncepter, der konfronterer dem selv i en korsvej. Kors og korsveje er veje som vores skulptør allerede havde rejst i det grafiske arbejde. Han vej vekslede i hvid og sort, rækkende frem og trække sig tilbage i bånd mellem mængden af former, der dukkede op, eller dybt i rum af faldende skygger, ikke ulig med de blokke og bånd, der er vævet ind i hinanden på lærredet af Sean Scully. I sin opgave med skulpturer krydser Oliver to koncepter, to modsatte komplimentære spørgsmål, som de to transversale linjer af det samme kors: objektet og ideen; den fysiske realitet af materialet er krydset med forestillingen om ideens impuls i et nyt konceptuelt spil, der føder nye kunstneriske skabelser til fryd for vores æstetiske følsomhed, placerer os på den samme korsvej som dets vej gennem en menneskelig verden. Lige der, er det at krydse formerne; kunstneren må tage sin beslutning, som var formerne en vej, hvor hver enkelt koncentrerer energien af forandring. Formen, der bliver valgt, og den, der bliver kasseret. Begge transformeres til en enkelt form. Mulighederne bliver svejset sammen gennem valget, og retningen fortsætter fremad. At vælge er at give form, at give afkald på tomheden, der på en måde konvertere alle andre muligheder ind i det ukendte. Elementet definerer sig selv gennem overbevisningen i valget, ikke desto mindre, udtrykket, der kommer frem enten svajer, eller stabiliseres, hvilket ser ud til at skabe nye versioner af dets selv. Med naturlig lethed og uden æstetisk, eller formelt besvær, Oliver har til hensigt at give skulp- 32

turen rum til alle forestillinger i Væren, der som mennesker, lever i en ubestemmelighed af korsveje, lige som forhold lever mellem tomhed og dets substans, eller mere præcist, mellem ideen og dets selv som et udtryk. Oliver siger: Jeg ser venskaber som en korsvej. Alle er vigtige, hvad de bidrager med. Der er nogen, de er vinkelrette, intense, men de holder ikke længe. Der er de nærmest parallelle med deres to arme side om side til horisonten og ud over denne. Imellem disse er der mange distinkte slags, hvert forhold giver og modtager ud fra dets natur. I skulpturen He, his Cross (2008) konverterer manden til kors, eller er det korset, der bliver til en mand? Vægten af symbolet er blevet bøjet i udtrykket, overgivet til kravet om foranderlighed, gjort korset til korsbærer med menneskelig resignation. De er ikke to, men er i stedet kun én i dets dualitet, som vi selv er, når vennen returnerer til vore eget reflekterede selvbillede. Denne uundværlige refleksion er essentiel for én selv. I korsets verden kan vi ikke afvise, at symbolet formerer sig i ligheder på grund af formen og funktionen, der tillægges i forskellige kulturer, som i den Kristne. Korset skylder dets form til opofrelse, derfor har det den menneskelige form, og synet af korset vækker billedet af en mand, der antager form som et kors, hvortil han forbliver naglet. Oliver støber mand og kors sammen til ét udtryk, fuld af symbolisme, menneskeliggør strukturen, giver det en andethed, gengiver udtrykket som en refleksion. Alle er i den samme akt af at være døende i den præcise forfølgelse af sin egen figur. For tilskueren foreslår disse bevægelser af korset det uhåndgribelige nærvær af elementet Tid, samtidigt indgiver det en følsomhed for en bestemt Livsånde i materialet, adskiller det fra geometrien, som, når det er destilleret, gav det over-kubiske kors af Salvador Dalí, en dybtgående sand korsvej af kunst og matematik, med hvilken kunst imødegår en fjerde dimension, som på en måde det fjerne ekko af nogle malere, der fulgte trinene i kubismen på et esoterisk-matematisk løfte. Kort sagt, det er handlingerne og det indre liv af materialet der konverterer formen til at tilføre en symbolsk dimension. I nogle tilfælde er denne dimension indlejret i det menneskelignende. Med mesterlig tegning imødegår Oliver i nogle af hans værker en simplificeret struktur, hvormed han overraskende adopterer en levende og udtryksfuld anatomi. Vi kan se dette vidunder af kunstnerisk følsomhed i serien He, his Cross VIII (2010) og He, his Cross XII (2012). I mellemspilet der kombinerer elementer af kubisk krop, som måske er udtænkt af Léger, eller Malevich selv, er omfanget af elementer simplificeret til et minimum, der kan artikuleres for hermed at tilføre kroppen bevægelse og drama. Den situation forandrer ikke det mindste den elegante ynde i disse bøjede væsener. Heller ikke den sobre elegance af deres koncentration under vægten af deres eget kors. I hans samling Processionen (2009 2010) udgør fire stykker fra den samme serie en procession foran et højt og yndefuldt mastlignende kors, der rejser sig over dem og på samme tid hælder sit hoved nedad, som en klar hentydning til Kristi kval. I værket kors og korsvej (2014) træder figuren af et langstrakt kors (Kristus) ind i et rum formet af sig selv ved et kors. Denne rungende form, denne provokerende refleksion antager for kunstneren et afgørende møde med det oprindelige og temaet af hans kors, der samtidigt manifesterer sig med de poetiske rødder og den indadvendte natur i hans værker. Begge scener kan ses, eller fortolkes fra mangfoldige perspektiver, men, som store kunstværker gør, efterlader de en resonans, et ekko i erindringen af et dybtgående åndedræt af liv. Fra en subjektiv tilgang, eksistensen af kubisten i Olivers skulptur forfølger ikke en geometrisk spekulation, eller leger en rent æstetiske dans, men er i stedet en opdagelse og konstruktionen af rumfangets elementer, der er komplimentære i rum og i form; et godt held af rim (huskende Juan Gris) i hvilken en produktiv dialog er fremstillet ved gengivelse, eller mangfoldighed. Ved opsplitning af temaet i skulpturerne som i Assembly of Stars (2006 2008), Inner Star (2012), eller Open Star (2014), viser Oliver os på en gang mangfoldigheden af form og kompleksitet af formsprog, der artikulerer dem, tilskueren inviteres til at rekonstruere, til at komponere den visuelle struktur, der genopretter den oprindelige vision, som et poetisk rim gør, vender tilbage til det endelige udtryk med ekko af dets første ord. På denne måde skaber til- 33