knitphilia:

“pink candles,”by LAURENCE PHILOMENE OLIVIER.

Olivier mixes vertical and horizontal framing with impunity; plays fast and loose with framing and use color in such a predictable manner that it I can only think to call it ‘awkward’.

That said, her instincts are on point, devastatingly so. Her images could read as sloppy except for the fact that the undisciplined framing fosters a studied immediacy; the lack of nuance in color management serves as a blunt tool to not only guide the eye through the images while also emphasizing the conceptual underpinnings. It’s as subtle as a train wreck & charmingly radical in its utter lack of affected ambiguity.

The contradictions which cancel each other out–whether happy accidents or clumsy technical experiments–make the work relevant. What makes it important is the way that at twenty, Olivier is already dissembling notions pertaining to gender and sexuality and repackaging them as delicate and delectable parfaits packed with razor edged broken glass.

Beautiful, chilling and crucial.