Walking into Olivier Hébert’s studio I am greeted with sunlight cast over sheets of canvas textured with black oil paint. Olivier describes his work with such care and sincerity, offering me insight into his process of making and the influences that shape him.  

Process not product

‘For me there’s something really mysterious about painting, and it’s my wish to preserve that.’ Olivier subverts traditional notions of painting by focusing on the materials, deconstructing the tactility of the medium. He looks past the brushes and the tools designed for a painter, using instead body, untreated canvas, rags, gloves, shoes, tools that allow for imprecise marks; tools that allow for error. This approach creates a visceral presence of the maker within the work. As a result of his process-led making, Olivier’s work is inscribed with unique and unfixed textures. 

Making, in this way, builds work that provokes an awareness of the experience of materials, bringing to mind the life of materials in our everyday. Olivier’s focus is ‘not what is there but how it’s there.’ Speaking to Olivier, I connect the sensitivity he has for the experience of the materials that he works with, with a sensitivity toward the human condition. 

He speaks to me about how he connected with the 1994 film, Hoop Dreams. He identifies with how it portrays dreams and focuses on the highs and adversities of personal development through the landscape of adolescence. Olivier notes the cultural differences of his own position with that of the characters, while reflecting on how being gay at that time in his life came with an overlaying sense of not having options. He felt detached. There seemed to be no place for him now or in the future and, therefore, no reason to dream. He keeps an image from the film on a wall in his studio space. In pursuing his career as a practicing artist, Olivier is dreaming through the process of making and connecting with the world. 

Presence and absence

In thinking about his practice, Olivier recalls a couple of comments about his work that particularly interested him. Someone once told him that in his work there is a ‘tension between improvisation and composition’. Someone else tagged his pieces as ‘canvas roadkill.’ The dialogue of control and fluidity exists in his art. This duality creates friction as the artist works and reworks the untreated canvas with black oil paint. 

In some of his work, the artist inscribes a silver pigment into the canvas. Olivier confirms that his use of oil paint is purposeful in this process of working. Not knowing exactly in what direction the piece is going, the oil paint allows him time as he continually reshapes the work.

Time to process

While making each piece Olivier embraces space, moving around the canvas and moving the canvas as he works into it. The aspect of movement is visible in much of his work and is a catalyst for more exploration by the artist, as well as by those experiencing the art. This is particularly prominent in Olivier’s works that include text. He explains to me that the use of text is deeply dependent on what is on his mind during the time of making.

images by PILOTENKUECHE

As a result of his layered process of making, the text that is inscribed on the canvas may be more or less visible. This rendering purposefully plays with the presence and absence of things. It questions what is seen and what is not seen. Most recently, Olivier has explored the potential of the canvas as material. Experimenting with the different ways folding and unfolding can be a form of mark making. It can add and take away textures. He mentions that this process can project a ghostly or shadowlike presence on the works. 

Fiction without narrative

Olivier is influenced by the culture that he absorbs, noting novels and films that have been the most meaningful to how he thinks and makes. His connection to this media is laced into his work, with elements of storytelling becoming embedded in the materials as he makes.

‘I make fiction stories, without narrative.’ 

Olivier’s draw toward this storytelling is embodied in his art as well as being explored through more graphic text within some of his works. He has expanded this desire toward writing poetry in a notebook he hands to me. The words I read are those of an observer, absorbing details that most would brush over. Olivier takes the time and space he needs to connect with himself and his surroundings, keenly finding emotion in the in-between moments. Olivier’s practice is a transcendent exhibit of the efforts of an artist giving himself space to expand from precision and to discover the potential of materials.

written by Kate Lafferty

Keep up to date with Oliver’s work on his website. As a International resident, his work can be seen in the upcoming PK events.

Moving surreal curiosity
PK & Friends potluck plus open studio

Fri 27 May
7-10PM PK & Friends
8PM anverso performance

Sat 28 May
4-8PM open studio
performances
6PM anverso
7PM Eugene Buldyk 

Dark Hope Respite

Vernissage
Sat 18 June
7-10PM

open
19-22 June
2-6PM

PILOTENKUECHE International Art Program
Franz-Flemming-Str 9
04179