Olivia Sterling - Rage Comedy

Olivia Sterling’s protagonists flail and prey, grind sausages, and mangle cakes, oozing pure angst, twisted into buoyant humor with juicy strokes.

- Kristin Farr

On the heels of a duo show at Huxley-Parlour Gallery with her friend Shir Cohen, aptly titled Rage Comics, Sterling sat down in Cohen’s studio for a conversation that bounces between wetness, furries, and systemic racism. And you, dear reader, are the leering fly on the wall, observing a biting, intersectional dialogue enjoyed over tea and cake.
 

Shir Cohen: This is our cold open. Who’s the villain?

Olivia Sterling: In my past paintings, basically white stuff is the villain of the painting. Cream, milk; it’s meant to be a metaphor for how overarching whiteness is, and how it will bleed into everything. It bleeds into how I see myself, what I should be doing, how I feel about myself… the blonde woman in my painting isn’t normal, but she’s left alone, whereas all of your figures are either animals or being purposely hurt. Why do you think that is?

I don’t know if you’re comfortable talking about this, but we’re both racially mixed with a white Mom.

We are, yeah. I knew this would come up. I was looking at my paintings like, is that what it is? It’s mommy issues, like racial mommy issues.

And expanding on that, is the blonde woman not like Britannia? Isn’t she? I think so.

You were born here in the UK, and I moved here from Jerusalem. I immediately felt a relief when I got here, but also a weird assimilationist pressure to do the right thing, stay on the right side of the escalator, and never step out of line.