Olympia Scarry
Sound Travels Faster Under Water
Apalazzo Gallery
August 1 – September 10 2023
Wednesday to Sunday, 11am –6 pm
Open by appointment
+41 79 909 46 57
A microcrystalline water drop at the heart of a sliver
of agate, solidified from the cooled off magma of the volcano.
A petrified wave as it breaks, survived for millennia.Skeletal residues of the liquid movements of water on silk,
intercepted by those of the earth, as graphite marking
of imperceptible “seismo noise”; resonance in Amplitude
/Frequency/Real Time, from an earthquake to a pin drop.An attempt to etch onto raw steel, a sound, a memory,
a shadow cast by a Razor’s Edge; only to disappear
with the inevitable patina from exposure to the elements.White Noise fractals of light penetrating diaphanous rock,
exposing tensions from tectonic movements circumflected
in graphite. A break in the tempo of erosion.Salt crystalline; a nano specimen material of time,
before our time from the first upheaval of salt deposits
300 million years ago during the formations of the Alps.A Microwave Sky reflected onto the shifting tides,
from the eternal electromagnetic spectrum of the sky
turned into microwave background radiation,
markings from the pure white light in the early days
of the Universe.Sounds Travels Faster under water, the sublime
granularinterior landscape of a partial view of immensity,
through material.Olympia Scarry
With the Generous support of Schweizer Salinen AG for providing the salt from the Salt Mine of Bex.
Olympia Scarry (b. 1983, Geneva, Switzerland) is a Swiss American artist based in Milan, Italy. Olympia Scarry’s first solo institutional exhibition was held at Fondazione ICA in Milano in January 2022. Solo exhibitions were held at Hauser & Wirth, Seeing Things As They Are 2018 in Gstaad, VNH, No House Music, in 2018 in Paris, Apalazzo, Parallel Lines Meet At The Point of Infinity in 2019 and her most recent exhibition BioSynthetic held in Marcello Piacentini’s Torrione INA, in March 2023 both in Brescia, Italy. A permanent site-specific outdoor installation at Eleven Madison Park in NYC entitled, Eleven/Eleven was commissioned in 2018.
She received her BFA from American University in Paris in Social Psychology and her MFA in Studio Art at NYU and Curatorial Studies at the Institute of Fine Arts in NYC. Scarry is co-founder and co-curator of the Swiss Biennale Elevation1049. Scarry’s fascination “to materiality, its formations, biological roots, alterations, and the shelters in which they might form. Geo-specific iterations of something less defined”1 are at the core of Scarry’s work.
Her choices reflect the ambiguities of power as they are transferred through thought and substance. Gravity and decay play a role in rendering solid forms, formless, in states of flux; caught as they are between weight and weightlessness, the urge to purify and record the material memory of time. Scarry examines these elements through synthesized organic matter such as pulverized metals, soap, crystal and salt.
1 From Estelle Hoy
Irrational Pavilions: Olympia Scarry, 2023
Images
Courtesy of the artist © Annik Wetter
Olympia Scarry
Sound Travels Faster Under Water
Apalazzo Gallery
August 1 – September 10 2023
Wednesday to Sunday, 11am –6 pm
Open by appointment
+41 79 909 46 57
A microcrystalline water drop at the heart of a sliver
of agate, solidified from the cooled off magma of the volcano.
A petrified wave as it breaks, survived for millennia.Skeletal residues of the liquid movements of water on silk,
intercepted by those of the earth, as graphite marking
of imperceptible “seismo noise”; resonance in Amplitude
/Frequency/Real Time, from an earthquake to a pin drop.An attempt to etch onto raw steel, a sound, a memory,
a shadow cast by a Razor’s Edge; only to disappear
with the inevitable patina from exposure to the elements.White Noise fractals of light penetrating diaphanous rock,
exposing tensions from tectonic movements circumflected
in graphite. A break in the tempo of erosion.Salt crystalline; a nano specimen material of time,
before our time from the first upheaval of salt deposits
300 million years ago during the formations of the Alps.A Microwave Sky reflected onto the shifting tides,
from the eternal electromagnetic spectrum of the sky
turned into microwave background radiation,
markings from the pure white light in the early days
of the Universe.Sounds Travels Faster under water, the sublime
granularinterior landscape of a partial view of immensity,
through material.Olympia Scarry
With the Generous support of Schweizer Salinen AG for providing the salt from the Salt Mine of Bex.
Olympia Scarry (b. 1983, Geneva, Switzerland) is a Swiss American artist based in Milan, Italy. Olympia Scarry’s first solo institutional exhibition was held at Fondazione ICA in Milano in January 2022. Solo exhibitions were held at Hauser & Wirth, Seeing Things As They Are 2018 in Gstaad, VNH, No House Music, in 2018 in Paris, Apalazzo, Parallel Lines Meet At The Point of Infinity in 2019 and her most recent exhibition BioSynthetic held in Marcello Piacentini’s Torrione INA, in March 2023 both in Brescia, Italy. A permanent site-specific outdoor installation at Eleven Madison Park in NYC entitled, Eleven/Eleven was commissioned in 2018.
She received her BFA from American University in Paris in Social Psychology and her MFA in Studio Art at NYU and Curatorial Studies at the Institute of Fine Arts in NYC. Scarry is co-founder and co-curator of the Swiss Biennale Elevation1049. Scarry’s fascination “to materiality, its formations, biological roots, alterations, and the shelters in which they might form. Geo-specific iterations of something less defined”1 are at the core of Scarry’s work.
Her choices reflect the ambiguities of power as they are transferred through thought and substance. Gravity and decay play a role in rendering solid forms, formless, in states of flux; caught as they are between weight and weightlessness, the urge to purify and record the material memory of time. Scarry examines these elements through synthesized organic matter such as pulverized metals, soap, crystal and salt.
1 From Estelle Hoy
Irrational Pavilions: Olympia Scarry, 2023
Images
Courtesy of the artist © Annik Wetter