Unique Trait de Pinceau (一画), 2013
India ink on plywood glued to canvas /
40 x 120 cm

       Like a musician who tirelessly practises his scales, every day for a month OliveOlivier engaged in a repetitive exercise in graphic dexterity : in a methodical and ritualistic way, he tried, as perfectly as possible, to write the words "Unique Trait de Pinceau" (single brushstroke) in a single stroke on traditional Chinese paper used in calligraphy.

       But instead of presenting all of these attempts, or the one that seemed the most successful, he preferred to show (and keep) only

the blotter that he had installed under the countless sheets used : a plywood board that he then fixed on a unprimed canvas.

       This work is above all the result of an action : the multiple attempts to take the Chinese painter Shitao at his word with this literal plastic retranscription of the founding principle of his thought.