JULY 2022
“A sharp two-stanza poem by Margaret Atwood ends with the lines “a fish hook / an open eye”. It offers an uncomfortable positioning of being both inside and outside the boundaries of control within individual relationships. Navigating such an in-betweenness of chaos and composure especially drives Olivia Colja’s art and her exhibition Return to the Hook.
Yet it’s difficult questions around intimacy that propel Colja’s latest work. ‘Competitive love is dangerous and Returning to the Hook is a line between knowing what’s moral and what’s socially taboo, but still behaving in a harmful way towards yourself and others. It can be subtle and unconscious or aggressive and explosive’, explains Colja.”
Excerpt from essay by Autumn Royal, ART GUIDE AUSTRALIA
Image: Youth, 2022. Oil on canvas 122 x 122cm