Karyn Olivier: Everything That’s Alive Moves offers the rare opportunity to examine the recent trajectories of Karyn Olivier’s investigation into scale, public memory, and their relation to issues of inclusivity and acceptance. The exhibition builds on several public projects and commissions created by the artist in recent years and continues to revise, rework, and expand on key works. Works in this exhibition bring together two themes the artist has focused on in recent years: larger-than-life scale and the minute, modest gesture. A new obelisk sculpture, a fully-functioning carousel for one rider, a large car made entirely of repurposed shoes —gathered for export to poor countries—and a brick wall built using discarded clothing as mortar, evoking memories of laundry and bundled lives carries overtones of refugee structures and traces of bodies, are among the works selected to be reimagined and constructed on-site at ICA. Karyn Olivier: Everything That’s Alive Moves is the first survey of Olivier’s work in her adopted hometown, and the first major solo show by a black, female sculptor at the ICA.
Karyn Olivier: Everything That’s Alive Moves
Karyn Olivier, Wall, 2017–2018. Bricks, used clothing, steel. Courtesy of the artist.
Karyn Olivier, Car Cover and Export Shoes, 2018. Car cover, expired shoes, support materials. Courtesy of the artist.
Karyn Olivier, Wall (detail), 2017–2018. Bricks, used clothing, steel. Courtesy of the artist.
Karyn Olivier, Moving the Obelisk, 2019– . Work in progress. Courtesy of the artist.
1964
Philip Johnson commissioned Warhol to make a large-scale work for the exterior for his pavilion for the New York World’s Fair, along with other artists. Warhol’s provocative response, a multiple portrait of ‘Most Wanted Men’ was installed a few days before the opening but was deemed too inflammatory and contrary to the upbeat image of the World’s Fair and the work was taken down.