Olivia Boa
As featured in Unfolded Magazine Issue 10
For some people, the most important issue in art is that it
expresses or stirs emotions. Olivia Boa is a painter and therapist
and it is that fascination with emotions and states of minds,
discovered in consultations with patients, which led her to create
a series of works that are psychologically motivated. With drawings
and paintings, you can cut through what you are trying to express
and Boa finds abstract art “really interesting because it's not
conventional, everybody can be expressive and be free!”. As a
therapist, working from her Fribourg office, helping people seeking
development or suffering from both physical and mental issues,
Boa is especially finding thrill in how spectators approach and try
to deconstruct her work in their minds.
Born in the Yvelines region of France, aside from tuition received
from painter Yves Armani, she is primarily self taught. Having a
foundation in more academic artwork, in 2011, she embarked upon a
series of abstract works, a concept of "generations" she describes
as “namely painting a subject on various energy perceptions.”
It is widely thought that abstract expressionists believe the
best way to express pure emotions is to create non-objective or
totally abstract artworks in which colours, lines, shapes, and
textures directly convey their emotional state.
She has fond memories of school trips to exhibitions, notably those
featuring works by Paul Cezanne and Monet. It is Cézanne’s works
which she is fond of, saying he was the “Perennially fashionable
painter, always of current events and avant-garde in technique. He
made me experience many feelings through his works.” Being a mother
of three children, from which she derives most of her fun, her
style has evolved over time and she has a drive to experience life
and all that it has to offer, but adding that the "future is built
on the reflections of the past."
Acrylic on paper or canvas is her chosen media and in defining her
work, Boa says it is difficult “because it's not congealed, I would
describe it as meaningful and expressive.” We feel there is much
more that defines her art and as a former boxer (known under the
name of Olivia Boudouma), perhaps in knowing one's opponent and
trying to get in their mind, is as much part of being a therapist,
as it is to being an artist trying to express their thoughts
on a viewer.
"From the bank to the over one: The Observer" is a work on paper
really particular to Boa. The work represents two banks of the same
place, the physical world and the psychic world and that of the
invisible. In the centre of the drawing, an eye looks from a bank
to the other side, it is the observer.
Colours hold significant importance for Boa, especially their
meanings and in some works, we see rectilinear grids of varying
colours, brush strokes and pathways intersecting the different
areas. To understand the mind, we asked if she has to
similarly chart or grid observations? “I work only with a spoon
bile, no brush, I spell this “rectilinear grids " "Trames de Vie"
in French, which mean: "wefts of life" because in our life we have
wefts... our education, our personality, our family, our job and
friends... our convictions... All this conditions us in certain
wefts which guides us unconsciously in our lives. It is that I
wanted to express it in my painting.”
In ‘Melancholy’ the artist wanted to represent what a strange
feeling melancholy is. "Strange" in the sense that one is unable to
just define melancholy as a state of sadness, but rather as a
complex condition that could represent the desire to find a past
situation that has brought much joy and satisfaction to the person.
Melancholy would be that enchanting souvenir that is no longer
present in the life of the person. We asked whether melancholy is
a necessity and what makes us human, to which Boa says, “yes
of course, for me melancholy is not a bad emotion, it's a necessary
emotion to pass from one stage to another.” It is depicted in the
picture, where “despite the cold black, deep blue and brown colors”
which evoke a “state of deep sadness, beautiful colours can emerge
from this state, such as purple and pink.” It may also be seen by
some as representing an outline of a city and all the good and bad
contained within such an environment.
With “Chessboard of Good and Evil”, bold colours, bright or pastel,
representing the “internal potential in everyone”, are wrapped with
a black colour, Boa calls “the mess” and in doing so, attempts to
“showcase a person’s potential which can be overshadowed or
diminished by their fear and suffering.” In further comment
on the use of black in some of her works, Boa states the black can
be transmuted into light (or gold seen here), explaining further
that “nothing is congealed, everything moves and we can transmute
"black" or our suffering and fear into "gold". It's not easy. It
may be a long path to travel. That which does not kill us makes us
stronger and we have to use this memory with the aim of growing and
moving forward in our life." The work is slightly reminiscent
of Piet Mondrian's paintings but the scaffolding is less rigidly
geometric.
Of the use of green in the centre, Boa tells us that “it is a
sign of hope, green is the symbol of youth, inexperience and
credulity, probably by analogy to the unripe fruit. The origin
of this symbol is the fact that green is the colour of new leaves,
buds, green of spring. In Christian literature, green is associated
with one of the three theological virtues, hope.” The colour green
also associated with chance and luck, coming from the fact that it
was one of the more unstable colours in dyeing, hence the lack of
use in the traditional theatre. The most common meaning of green is
found in nature. In Islam, paradise is described as full of
greenery. Green is also associated with regeneration, fertility and
rebirth of its ties to nature. The fact that the piece has an
amalgam of different green in the middle symbolises that deep down,
man is able to regenerate and transmute the memory of his fear and
suffering into a bright potential. This requires reconnecting to
his soul, deep inside, which is represented by the centre of the
painting.”
The work "Brainstorming" represents reflection, a shape of a
-cyclone and similar to the state in which a person can put himself
into when they look for an idea. Boa tells us that the "painting
bottom is white, as a virgin or imprint of an idea. The colours of
the cyclone are black and purple now, symbolising that in
brainstorming one can release ideas which are black and productive,
even more so with the ideas of genius, which are represented by the
golden colour. The purple in transition represents the
transmutation of the golden black. In Europe, the purple
in Middle Ages represented a spiritual colour, that of the
clergy.
Of the "Psychological Works" project and future plans, Boa notes
that she will print for September, a catalogue (48 pages) with 12
descriptions of canvases and emotions. There is also a ‘Seven
Deadly Sins’ project, and a general catalogue presenting all her
work.
Images provided by the artist
Copyright © Olivia Boa
Interview by Nardip Singh