Artists Statement

The majority of the imagery appearing in my work has its origins in my night time dreams or the soft spaces in between waking and sleeping. Overall I would say that my work is about the relationships between everyday states of awareness and the emotional/spiritual forces that often sit on the outer edges of consciousness.

The darkness in my work refers to these 'soft spaces'. It is a darkness not of a nightmarish quality but the darkness of potential where light springs from.

I consider the wooden structure to be representations of daily habits, routines and the fixed ideas that one lives by. In their negative aspect they are rigid and inflexible, but in their positive aspect they are a stable platform on which to stand.

The water and fish are symbols of the more energetic and fleeting aspects of my being: Emotions, passions and basic drives that date back to the beginnings of our evolution, like the desire for movement, growth and change.

The figures riding the oars refer the lightness of fantasy and spiritual flights, like lucid dreaming where one realizes that one is in a dream and all natural laws can be suspended as quickly as the thought forms.

The oars specifically symbolize the individual's volition or strength of intention and their ability to maneuver this intention through both the physical world as well as the world of thought. Just as the rowers will and direction is expressed through the movement of the oars.


Exhibition - Peter Rae Gallery
February 2004
Exhibition notes written by Rick Norris

If one were to speak in terms of racehorse lineage, it might be tempting to describe Olav Nielsen's aquatints as being 'by Surrealist out of Gothic', by Goya out of Albrecht Durer' or even 'by Aesop out of David Lynch'. For it is from the world of dreams and ambiguous realities that Danish born Nielsen draws his inspiration. And it is on the fringes of darkness and light that that he finds his medium of expression.

Dreams which emerge from the threshold of consciousness. Dreams which don't quite square with the usual realities. Dreams which claim their own peculiar significance: thresholds to some other place entirely. Dreams expressed in muted earthy palette and low key tonal contrasts. In Nielsen's dream-world subjects emerge glowing with interior light from dark, partially revealed backgrounds, structures stand ominously, their highlighted facets framing interiors closed in dark impenetrability, freakish distortions of reality appear unexpectedly, not quite noticed at first glance. It is a world where looking deeper will reveal only more layers of mystery. Such is the form and substance of Nielsen's twilight zone, the stuff of dreams in narrative. In short, this body of works reads like a series of gothic fairy-tales.

Yet while all the images are dominated by dark tones and colours, Nielsen says they do not represent frightening dreams. "It's a darkness which depicts the 'soft spaces' between waking and sleeping. It's a darkness of potential, where light springs from," he says.

The narrative of Nielsen's work is enriched by the use of symbolic images which run in common through this body of work. In his artist's statement, he explains that the use of wooden structures, for example, are placed within the pictures to represent the duality of our daily habits and fixed ideas. On the negative side these speak of rigidity and inflexibility, while on the positive they account for the strength of firm platforms on which we stand through our life's journey.

The medium of burnished aquatint used throughout this exhibition is one the artist finds ideally suited to portraying the moods he wished to capture.

Born in Denmark in 1978, Olav Nielsen immigrated to New Zealand at the age of twelve. He began his formal art education after leaving high school, attending life drawing and painting classes before studying full time at the Otago Polytechnic School of Fine Art from 1997-2000, graduating BFA in printmaking. After taking part in several group shows, this is Nielsen's first solo exhibition. He gained second placing in the mainland art awards 2003 and is currently living and working in Dunedin as a full time artist.