Author
Guy A. Forster-Pearce
Goldsmiths’ CCA
December 2021
One of those artists is Olivia Sterling. A Fine Art MAs graduate of the @royalcollegeofart she was distanced from her studio during the pandemic. Truly, an artist of the now she has ventured into the digital sphere where @the.whitecube venerated her in their online viewing room ‘Tomorrow: London’. She was 1 of 20 commended individuals.
Stern’s commissioned collection for #CCA draws attention to the wider social contexts surrounding an embrace of certain darker skin tones at the expense of others, in modern Britain. Through playful gestures that often integrate a motif of food and consumption, white subjects’ skin becomes a surface to be adorned, in every instance, with a darker tone. Yes, we can elicit joy from the suggestive placement of an oozing profiterole below a woman’s breast, but what Sterling is expressing is something much more serious. The very real phenomenon of #blackfishing.
In the wake of Jesy Nelson’s flop first solo single ‘Bad Boys’ (in which she blatantly appropriates American hood culture with braids and costume stolen from East Coast garb), we are aware that there persists a desire within some to tan so extremely that they willingly forget their ancestry. This is nothing new: Ariana Grande shifted Pantone shades when she pursued her singing career, and the Kardashian clan propagated the popularity of #BBLs.
The issue arises from the mimicry of black experience by those outside of its origins, without claim to its proprietary, especially for personal economic benefit. To profit while #whitewashing their representation.
This is at the heart of Sterling’s #ReallyRoughScrubbingBrush a tool she’s chosen to enact violence with. Albeit, for now, a more placative painter’s brush. Depictions of a white woman covering her posterior and thighs with tan in her hyperbolic acrylic ‘Coconut, Onyx Dark Chocolate and Straight-up Black’
Opposite the fruits of her labour come through in the sweet treats that feed her black subjects; cherries and a bowl of strawberries that remind us to aim for our 5-a-day later. What is so visually striking in these works is the underlying blue tones that emphasise the absurdist nature of a cameo snake in ‘Lady Tanning with Strawberries’ and the confusion between sunburn and sucrose-slathered fingers that leave angular three-clawed marks upon their bodies.
She speaks her truth through a characteristic devotion to represent the larger lady through animated figures that look as though her wooden drawing manikin had eaten plenty its fill of the untouched gâteaux in ‘All Inclusive 1 & 2’.
As a young #creative she already has three solo #exhibitions under her belt, with various other showcases in recent years. Hers are promising futures. Ones I hope inspire a generation to embrace their naturally blessed features.
Stern’s collection is on display in the well-lit basement of the Oak Foundation Gallery at Goldsmith’s CCA until 12/12/2021.
Words by @guy_afp
#OliviaStern #Goldsmiths #London #UK #ContemporaryArt #ArtCriticism #Art #Infographic
Guy A. Forster-Pearce 