| Precious woods such as ebony, kingwood or sycamore are further enhanced by veneer work, while metals – steel, stainless steel, aluminum or brass – undergo in-depth reworking to produce, for example, fine sheets which are polished, brushed and then meshed with enigmatical calligraphies resembling something between rock art and graffiti. This daring blend of raw natural materials with modern synthetic ones such as Plexiglass and plastic give Olivier Garcia’s creations a timeless quality. The practical act of creating a shape and giving it a real-world use is actually the means to make a revelation: to reveal the essential quality of the mineral, wood or glass material involved. Within this context, the creative act calls for total technical mastery. Olivier Garcia is an adept of the school of great technicians and has gathered around him a group of highly skilled craftsmen who are able to use millimetric precision in giving body to the original idea. They are some of the most skilled workers in France, officially recognized as such by the state-sponsored “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” award: cabinetmakers, ironworkers, glass and mirror workers, lacquer workers and polishers, they all bring him the benefit of their experience. He observes and learns with the clinical eye his medical training has given him. He has perfected his training by mastering laser cutting techniques. By giving lyric voice to the materials he uses, he is thus using something akin to the techniques of psychoanalysis: the material speaks, thereby revealing its true soul. Freed from its gangue, it reveals itself as it is, raw and reinvented. |
