Daniel Olson: At Some Level, I’m Just Trying To Do Ordinary Things

Introduction

“At some level I’m just trying to do ordinary things.”

Daniel Olson: Small World is a catalogue representing exhibitions at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, the Cambridge Galleries and the Owens Art Gallery over 2000/2001. Each exhibition has been separately conceived by the artist in collaboration with the curators at these three institutions to represent various facets of his work. This catalogue brings together these exhibitions and the artist’s disparate activities and interests under a single, virtual roof.

As an observer of Daniel Olson’s work, I have been both held at arm’s length and warmly embraced. I have been frustrated by my inability to penetrate some of his images, and yet later rewarded by a stunning lucidity. On occasion, being with his work has made me feel at sea, as though I have been cut adrift from any and all art references. At other times, these images begin to appear as part of a discreet yet ubiquitous connective tissue – a connective tissue that binds phenomenal experience with art, language and culture.

The art historian and polymath Johan Huizinga suggested that play may be that connective tissue. He argued in his book Homo Ludens, published during the barbarism of World War II, that humanity, the species homo sapiens, may not deserve the distinction of being called the thinking primate. He proposed instead that prior to cognition, prior to language, exists play. Play, he argued, may represent the most fundamental human engagement with the phenomenal world, stimulating the creation of language and cultural representation, as well as the competitive and predatory aspects of human nature such as sport, hunting, law and war. As such, play has no moral value and no superior character. Play animates human culture, for better and for worse. An appreciation of play unlocks much art. Play responds to the essential physical phenomena of light, sound and movement, with the recognition of patterns and imitation. Play abdicates obligation and cultural meaning: interpretation will be left to critics, journalists, philosophers, and so on. Play is disinterested, it stands outside the immediate satisfaction of wants and appetites.

Play is its own reward, although we live in a culture that showers riches on exemplary players. To play, to be able to perceive play, and delight in it, is in the end, the most liberating act. It is to the interpreters of Daniel Olson’s work in this catalogue, Martin Arnold and Christina Ritchie, that I would like to extend my appreciation and admiration. Their illuminating and “playful” engagement with this body of work seems to me to be most appropriate to its textures and resonant tones. Composer and music theorist Martin Arnold discusses the apparitional character of Olson’s work through an examination of Theodor Adorno’s critical appreciation of the essential characteristics of music and pyrotechnics. Curator Christina Ritchie’s interview with the artist reveals Olson working with the material of personal history, wrestling with issues of authenticity and maintaining an uncompromisingly independent and singular course. 

I would like to thank Joan Stebbins, Curator of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, and Gemey Kelly, Director/Curator of the Owens Art Gallery for their support for this publishing project, making this illustration and these examinations of Daniel Olson’s work possible. And lastly, I would like to thank Daniel Olson, for his brilliantly, marvellously, playfully enigmatic work. 

Gordon Hatt 

Curator, Cambridge Galleries