Artist Olivia d’Aboville. Courtesy of Provenance Gallery
French-Filipina artists Solenn Heussaff-Bolzico and Olivia d’Aboville collaborate on an exhibition called “VITA,” playing on different ways people perceive and react to nature.
Nature goes through changes, as women often do. Solenn Heussaff-Bolzico and Olivia d’Aboville articulate these changes through their collaborative exhibition “VITA,” presented at the Provenance Gallery in Shangri-La The Fort.
Curator Stephanie Frondoso was inspired by magical realism, a genre of fiction associated with blurring the lines between fiction and reality. “They want to celebrate or pay homage to the complexity of nature, but also the complexity of humans’ relationship with nature,” she says about the artists’ work. Heussaff-Bolzico, who started her career as an artist creating social realist paintings, veers into surrealist, visually anti-organic work for this exhibition, portraying nature in forms and colors that feel alien yet familiar.
“It’s her way of saying that nature is not only always changing, but it depends on who’s looking at it,” Frondoso explains. “For example, someone from indigenous community would see nature differently than someone who was born and grew up in an urban area and has never been to the beach or never been to a forest. Everyone has a different understanding of nature.”
Meanwhile, d’Aboville presents a disciplined and principled approach to her ‘textile paintings’, using materials such as handwoven raffia and abaca, and working with local weavers and artisans. From afar, the pieces are visually satisfying patterns and landscapes, but up close, the solidity of construction is a marvel. “It takes a village; a long process involving many hands,” d’Aboville says in the curatorial note.
In their partnership, dAboville says it was hardly a challenge. “It was so organic, and we didn’t force anything.” The two women artists shared a lot of time together early in life: both French-Filipinas who were classmates in early childhood, who both moved to France for college. Their lives traversed different courses when Heussaff-Bolzico came back to the Philippines and entered show business, while d’Aboville continued her path as a textile technologist. While their friendship endured through the years, it was made stronger as they bonded through their motherhood.
Heussaff-Bolzico reflected on how her approach to life has changed through time. “Early 20s, you discover who you are, who you want to be. You’re so busy in your respective industries, meeting new people,” she says. “I guess when you start a family, when you have kids, that’s really when you know what’s important in your life.” The two shared memories of raising their children during the pandemic, leaning on each other during such a difficult time.
While the two artists presented their individual works in the exhibition, their collaborative pieces are significant. Heussaff-Bolzico and d’Aboville sent the pieces back and forth to each other, lifelong friends offering each other commitment and dedication. The result are pieces that are marriages of both their styles: the “Vergere” series, for example, involves a painting by Heussaff-Bolzico printed over yards of fabric, then pleated by d’Aboville. On a circular canvas, d’Aboville pleats abaca polyester textile over Heussaff-Bolzico’s acrylics and pastels in “Motus.”
The experience was a fulfilling one for Heussaff-Bolzico, who feels like the timing was right when she met her friend and fellow artist again at this point in her life. “When I was thinking of people to collaborate with, it was really only Olivia,” she says, sharing that she has a piece from d’Aboville encased in her home. “At a certain point in your life, you go back to your roots. You’re not trying to be someone different. You know what you want, you know where to go, and you just know the people you want to be with.”
As Frondoso says in her curatorial note, the two artists have “created little worlds that blend comfort in the familiar with a shared hope in the unknown.” “VITA” is an encapsulation of the enduring power of female friendships, one that is tested through time, and one that is strengthened through mutual admiration and collaboration through art.
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