Olivia Albanell is an artist based in London driven by the impulse to look for, find and gather; carry, hold and safe keep. Each of these motions being as integral to her process as the first.
Her findings undergo manipulations—if any—and are displayed in her studio until they are repurposed as part of a bigger installation or left to stand on their own.
She maintains it is by being with these materials on an intimate level that installations come to be and not so much by doing things to them. In other words, by letting materials be what they are and do as they will.
The studio to her is both a playground and a place of training, a liminal space where she practices arriving at things with a beginner’s mind.
She is never thinking about durability or permanence when working. Allowing works to remain open and mutable rather than fixed is far more important to her.