Bronwyn Oliver | The Shadows Within
“My sculpture is primarily concerned with structure, but I like to think of them as the bones for something. It might only be bone, but it might be the beginning or ending of something as well.” Bronwyn Oliver
Bronwyn Oliver - The Shadows Within trailer | © 2021 Catherine Hunter Productions
Bronwyn Oliver (1959-2006) was one of the greatest sculptors in 20th century Australia. Her work can be seen in public and private collections throughout the country including all major public galleries, Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, the University of New South Wales and in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall to name just a few.
She won the major prizes of her generation including the 1981 NSW Travelling Arts Scholarship (which took her to the Chelsea School of Art in London to study a Masters) and the prestigious 1994 Moët & Chandon Fellowship. Through a rich and valuable archive this film allows Oliver’s own voice to drive the narrative.
Bronwyn Oliver in her studio, Photographer unknown
Apostrophe 1987, National Gallery of Victoria © Estate of Bronwyn Oliver
Bronwyn Oliver, Ammonite 2005. Private collection
National Gallery of Australia director Nick Mitzevich says, “I think Bronwyn left a great sense of beauty and care. Her life was tragic and such a loss to the art world but what we have are these incredibly precious beautiful renderings of her versions of the world … At times, she closed herself off from the world but what she did leave was her meditation of the world. And it's beautiful and it's precious and it's full of love and nurture and the artist’s hand is all over it.”
“A new, intimate documentary … directed by Catherine Hunter with a gentle touch had us completely absorbed, inspired, saddened and then inspired again”
You can watch it now on [ABC] iView and it’s so, so worth the delve. In fact, it almost feels wrong not to watch and experience the work of this incredible artist who is finally considered one of Australia’s greatest conceptual sculptors. She’s an artist whose magical hands found ways to embroider parts of her intellectual and emotional self into the very fabric of her work.
We would have said she was an environmental artist, but Oliver did not want to be defined in these terms - it’s too simplistic and in fact she saw nature as more of a starting point for her broader ideas and fascinations. For and within her forms, structures, energies and artistic ripples, the viewer feels very much like they are holding (through her) a handful of our universe’s mysteries.
Jennine Primmer, Visual artist and writer, Southern Wild Co
Bronwyn Oliver, Palm 1999, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney
An introverted person by nature, Oliver was, however, incredibly articulate about her work.
“I try to draw attention to the inside space in my work. I try to energize the emptiness. The outside of the work is a description of the potential in the emptiness inside them. The shadow compresses the emptiness. You also speak about shadows living in the emptiness.” Bronwyn Oliver
But alongside the great beauty of her work, Oliver battled her own demons that saw her struggle with day to day relationships and break away from her family. Emeritus Professor Ian Howard first taught Oliver at the age on 10 in her hometown of Inverell, and at Alexander Mackie College in Sydney (later to become COFA). In 2006, he gave her the Dean’s Award calling her contribution to Australian contemporary culture as unique and highly significant.
Howard says of Bronwyn Oliver, “I just think there's a missing piece in this story or this puzzle of Bronwyn Oliver. And that is to have a look at the work and see if in the work there's a reflection upon her life, the good parts and the bad parts. You know, the high points and the tragedy. If you delve deeply enough, then you're likely to find out a lot about the character, the artist.”
REVIEWS| The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, The Guide, 11 October 2021
The ABC is still grappling with how to make series that successfully engage with the arts, but in the meantime they thankfully continue to air one-off documentaries such as this thoughtful and rightfully sombre exploration of the life and work of Bronwyn Oliver, the acclaimed Australian sculptor who reshaped the discipline’s possibilities before taking her own life in 2006.
Directed by Catherine Hunter, The Shadows Within circles Oliver’s intricate metal sculptures, so complex and immersive as to suggest an organic form, so that the acclaim they received makes obvious sense, while using archival footage and deeply felt testimony of those closest to the artist to map her personal narrative. With the fierce blue flame of the welding torch as visual punctuation, this is informative for both the newcomer and the devotee.
“I think people can feel what goes into them when they see them” Oliver says of her work and this documentary captures some of that same clarity.
The Sun Herald, 9 October 2021
Both a thorough, sensitive documentary and an equally satisfying and engaging introduction to a remarkable body of work, wonderful archival material and accessible scholarship bring this remarkable story to vivid life.
Oliver’s exhibiting career began in 1986 at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and she was also represented by the Christine Abrahams Gallery in Melbourne. And for almost 20 years, she was a much-loved art teacher at Cranbrook School.
Former student Kip Williams, now director of the Sydney Theatre Company remembers, “Her classes were about breaking the limits, and smashing the rules and about the unlimited potential of the imagination.”
Oliver’s early work was made from paper and fibreglass but gave way to the tougher materials of copper wire and bronze. As Ian Howard explained, “The welding and fabrication processes harnessed in the use of these materials demand a kind of fearlessness and calculated control.”
And Bronwyn Oliver’s life was very much about control. Her prodigious output was made possible by 14-hour days in her Sydney studio.
In her later career, much of her work was for private and public commissions including sculptures in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney and a 16.5-metre-high work for the Hilton Hotel in Sydney. Having completed the work for a new exhibition, Oliver committed suicide in 2006. She was just 47 years old.
Bronwyn Oliver, Two Rings 2006, Private collection, Photograph Andrew Curtis
Bronwyn Oliver, Orb, Smith College, USA © The Estate of Bronwyn Oliver. Photograph Jayne Tauscher
Bronwyn Oliver - The Shadows Within was financed with the assistance of the Australian Artists’ Film Fund/National Gallery of Australia, the Estate of Bronwyn Oliver and Cranbrook School. The Producer acknowledges the support of Screen Australia through the Producer Equity Program. It was produced in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The director acknowledges the scholarship of Hannah Fink whose biography Bronwyn Oliver – Strange Things was published by Piper Press in 2017.
Director & Writer/Catherine Hunter, Cinematographer & Editor Bruce Inglis, Script Editors/John Muldrew & Sonia Bible, Composer/Amanda Brown. First screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2021.
© Catherine Hunter Productions 2024