BY HANNAH KRAFCIK

Olivia Faith Harwood’s inaugural solo show, Possessions, Possessions, features twelve paintings layered with curious details that greet visitors in swaths of swirling avocado, soft blush, lavender, and powder blue neons. Yet, this stimulating palette belies an air of unease and mystery, as the exhibition sets out to reflect on “the burdens of adolescent dilemmas, shame and the deconstruction of identity.” A recent Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Harwood still contends with themes from her coming of age. Her new body of work conjures up memories of this formative time when the finitude of life begins to hit hard—and when limitless imaginary worlds are up against the boundaries of life in the flesh. 

Harwood acknowledges the unsettling nature of linear time by collapsing it into surrealist layers that provide entry points for people of all ages. She accomplishes this by bridging current aesthetic trends with depictions of vintage memorabilia—such as dice, marbles, jacks, and kewpie dolls—across her paintings. She distorts dimensions by folding geometric patterns into backgrounds, borders, and clothing. The geometry in Harwood’s paintings strikes at my penchant for pattern recognition. In Eyes are Mosaics, a spiraling chain is bisected: one half of the spiral is chain link and the other of pearls. These textures circle methodically around a central face, a close-up self-portrait. The chain link grazes the inner pupil of one eye, and pearl grazes the other, wrapping her countenance while obscuring the tone of her expression. Is she spiraling in or out?

The exhibition showcases Harwood’s compelling self-portraiture, a bridge into the animistic dimensions of her paintings. Power, her face cast in blue with glinting green eyes and a clown-like collar around her neck, sneakily blurs the boundaries between human and object. The border is of expressive harlequin-like faces, all of which begs the question: Is she human here—or is she a doll that has come to life? By mixing representations of herself with other beings and objects, she conjures the possibility that everything is alive in its way. 

In Spellbound, Harwood breathes life into characters that float amidst an onslaught of vibrant patterns. Layer hooks into a layer, as Harwood’s varied patterning forms a background that merges with the large winking jack o'lantern at the fore. Outlined in the upper corner is a conniving green face; spiderwebs, lemons, snakes, and flowers surround the canvas. Every object and character in this work is animated by mischief. Many of Harwood’s works remind me of the “red room” in David Lynch’s series Twin Peaks with its zigzag black and white floor and tenor of horror. She draws inspiration from quotidian materials such as fabrics, game boards, and wallpaper. The series of paintings brings embodiment into conversation with the uncanny. Haunted Figurine—a part-skeleton, part-human figure with the head of a black cat smiling with fangs out—demonstrates how Harwood tends toward humanoid features. This central character reclines back on its skeletal femur with a pale fleshy hand resting on its stomach, seemingly relaxed. I often find myself inhabiting a similar posture and feel a sense of affinity with the Haunted Figurine.

The postures of Harwood’s characters evoke familiarity and empathy. Traditional Trauma and Tenderness juxtaposes human figures with funny cartoon characters and one humanoid body with a jack o'lantern for a head—all these bodies pose with an air of ambivalence as if they are not sure what to make of one another. In Wax and Wane, a lamb is caught mid-gallop with an alert spine and tail aflame, and Wild Horses, a contemplative clown, sits next to a cat who is pandiculating leisurely in Gemini, agile leopard bounds across the top of two human heads. Even the bugs in Loveless Spiral appear as if they have a lot to say. While all of these creatures and characters may be part of Harwood’s inner world, she honors their inner worlds as well through her depictions of them. 

Harwood shows she has developed compositions that toy with hierarchical modes of perception. Her unstable brushstrokes reveal their functionality, like stitches in a quilt doing what they can to hold the fabric of varied histories together. This painting style serves her more fantastic concept, rendering dream-like scenes that provoke a sense of collapsed time and disquiet. Harwood's new works show the pursuit of self-understanding in a world that extends itself with duality. The vivid color palette sends spirit into her all of the conveyed objects, places, and characters, bringing forth haunting and familiar personalities that play amongst her canvases. These paintings remind me of confusing moments in my own life when I grappled with the wildness of my imagination alongside the reality of my lived experience—in childhood, adolescence, and during the pandemic.

Possessions, Possessions, Olivia Faith Harwood is on view at Fuller Rosen Gallery until Mar 13, 2022.

Hannah Krafcik is an interdisciplinary neuroqueer artist currently based in so-called Portland, Oregon. Their works span dance, writing, digital media, and sound design