Olivia Musgrave. Work in Progress

At the end of last year, I asked Olivia Musgrave if she would consider putting on a small exhibition of sculptures for the new gallery. At first we only discussed an exhibition of earlier editions, a sort of mini retrospective, but it soon became evident she was also forming some tentative ideas for new sculptures. She was reticent about the work other than to say that she was using an elephant and working on some tiny Amazon figures. With little else to go on but the delight of the unknown, we agreed that ‘Work in Progress’ was the safest title.

Sometime in early May, with ten, small works nearing completion she invited Dan Weill to her studio to photograph the pieces before they were sent to the foundry. The resulting series of pictures vividly record that beautiful moment of sculpture in its raw, fragile state, the clay still soft and ready for the final adjustments. Today, as those same clays crack and disintegrate in the studio like some spent cocoon, the finished casts seem alive with that moment. A decision and a point in time set in bronze.

There is something extraordinarily powerful about a sculptor choosing to work on such an intimate scale. These are sculptures to be held in your hands, turned around and looked at from different aspects as you follow the marks of clay, pinched and smoothed towards their final conclusion. Musgrave’s tiny sculptures draw one into their world; their power is subtle, quiet and reassuring because every shape has been considered and every line has a purpose. Olivia also knows how to use scale. A sculpture of an elephant in a boat might suggest a more appropriately monumental undertaking, but would we still notice the elephant’s tiny human companion? To hold this in one’s hands you understand it as a metaphor and sense the pathos with which it resonates.

Whilst many of these new sculptures may have been carried as far as they are likely to go, it is worth remembering that the exhibition marks only a starting point. It is always ‘work in progress’ and it will be fascinating to see how these new ideas unfold and expand in coming months and years. There are any number of possibilities, but for the moment it is a delight to enjoy Olivia’s new work at this very delicate and intimate early stage.

John Martin