Richard Oliver

The Guardians 1&2, 2022

Richard Oliver’s most recent work has figurative connections to the MOAI sculptures on Easter Island in Polynesia. Whilst working on these new sculptural abstract forms of the self, they evolved into guardians and repositories of reflection. To Oliver they are personal: “I feel very much a part of these creations and they carry my burdens but give nothing of me away.” They carry the gestures of strength and poise with a blankness, expressed minimally in the raw purity of the unglazed clay. The process that Oliver utilises to create these ceramic works is taken from the bronze casting process and is a re-appropriation of the materials of this procedure. As Oliver explains: “creating with this material is an exciting challenge for me, allowing for experimentation on a large scale. Under normal ceramic applications it should not be possible to create on this scale, yet here I am, Raku firing large sculptures. It’s an amazing process.”

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