The Solstice Begins!

Don’t skip the details here. What appears as a whirlwind of orange and white concentric shapes is laden with memories, figures, snippets of worlds gone by or about to be born.

Accompanying this week’s exhibition by Olga Goldina Hirsch, The Solstice Begins” - curated in collaboration with the talented writer and curator, Irene Kukota - today’s spotlight is on the artworks on display.

“A solstice occurs twice a year. The solstices are traditionally considered to signify the start of summer and winter. One brings in warmth, the other one ushers in cold. Each solstice marks a shift in rhythms and moods, in which we live and create. Twice a year during the solstice we are given a chance to survey our past and sketch out our future.”
Olga Goldina Hirsch

Olga Goldina Hirsch, “After Malevich - The Window”, diptych, 2018, mixed media on canvas, 200 x 140cm

As Irene Kukota writes:

“Olga’s works are extensive philosophical commentaries on the loss of historical memory that occurs in the time of political upheavals, wars, and other catastrophes. She also addresses the subsequent crisis of identity, and the possibility of healing. Her works are multi-layered, both technically and conceptually. They are like palimpsests, revealing layered messages to the viewer. “

Installation photo of Olga Goldina Hirsch, “By The Window - Beyond Time and Space”, 2018, mixed media on canvas, 200 x 140cm

“The black background (or, rather black priming) in her paintings has strong symbolic connotations. Olga proceeds from opening her own “black square”, i.e. from reclaiming the fragments of the long-forgotten memories out of the “black holes” and abysses of oblivion. The artist attempts to find her own foothold in the void represented by the areas of white colour. However, this void is not entirely blank, but replete with information. Her paintings are an attempt to identify memories, retrieve them, and move on.

The artist makes her paintings in mixed media, using layers of paint, screen printing and other kinds of printing. The subjects of her work are views of internal spaces, remembered, recovered, and reclaimed.”

Olga Goldina Hirsch, “By the Window - Padam, Padam, Padam”, 2018, mixed media on canvas, 200 x 140cm

Olga Goldina Hirsch received her MA in Fine Art from the City and Guilds of London Art School (Birmingham University) in 2018. In 2022, she became runner-up for the TEBBS International Art Award. She is also a member of the Taylor Foundation, Paris.

Olga's paintings regularly appear as part of the London Art on the Underground programme, as well as in Times Square, New York. Her art is also in the Copelouzos Family Art Museum, Athens; in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Vladivostok and in private collections across the UK, France, Italy, Canada and the USA.

The exhibition runs through 22 September.
EXHIBITION INFO

Katrine Levin17 September 2024Comment