Oliver Beer Recomposition (Soho Wave), 2021
The title of Recomposition (Soho Wave) (2021) combines references to Oliver Beer’s studio in Soho, London and to the famous woodblock print Great Wave by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The curved form of the wave is created using an array of objects belonging to Beer and his grandmother – whom he called Oma – including chess pieces, dominoes, books and, for the first time, a guitar. Together, the chosen items form an unconventional double portrait, with a particular emphasis on music.
In Beer’s ‘two-dimensional sculptures’, he slices and sets in resin objects that evoke the sounds and memories contained within personal possessions. These fragments seem to flow musically and weightlessly across the pictorial plane like a graphic score. They have lost all volume and functionality, instead creating a kind of ‘physical cubism’ in which multiple perspectives can be simultaneously perceived.
