Red Velvet, Orange Crush

Red Velvet, Orange Crush

installation with handmade quilts and sculptures, hand-painted walls
2022 Geary Contemporary, New York, NY
and Geary Millerton, Millerton, NY

Red Velvet, Orange Crush is a space to commune with the work: in Oliveira’s I am weak with much giving, I am weak with the desire to give more, a silk velvet form has the look of a volcanic vent for a subterranean fire, or a carnivorous flower, and calls back to the origins of the silk fabric in the show: tiny threads unraveled from the cocoons of silk moths. At 208 Bowery, an immersive wash of color radiates out into the space from within the cocoon. A long tentacle snakes out from the sculpture, beckoning the viewer to step closer, to perhaps merge and be enveloped in the folds of the creature, and to submit to its power.

The two large quilts at Geary Millerton both use pieced, hand dyed cotton, and cyanotypes on silk. The cyanotype is a photogram process invented by a nineteenth century astronomer that was often used to document plant life. The figurative cyanotypes create otherworldly images that seem just outside of our understanding. This process’s origins in the cataloging and categorization of the natural world by Western scientists contrasts with the imagery of the quilts, which positions desire and touch as modes of reconfiguring the cosmos, and human beings as enmeshed in the natural world rather than as dispassionate observers of it. The works visualize the entanglement of the figures in their environment, and the stitching creates lines around the moments of movement or touch that ripple outward to shift and change the world around them.

– Poppy Delta Dawn