Fools rush in Here; Angels fear to Read (Four trans-lated indexes of pterodactyls) is part invitation, part installation, part public lecture, by visiting artist and PS1 2025-26 gallery awardee, olivier.
HOW TO EXPERIENCE
From April 14–16, interested participants are invited to create their own pterodactyl drawings* and submit them at a designated drop-off box on the front porch of the Northside gallery (229 N Gilbert). They can also be delivered to the artist by email (send to xoliiviierx@gmail.com).
From April 16–18, the public is invited to visit the artist at work at PS1 Northside for expanded gallery hours and for a lecture in two parts:
Thurs April 16, 4-6pm (gallery hours)
Fri April 17, 4-6pm (gallery hours)
Sat April 18, 12-3pm (lecture, part i)
Sat April 18, 6-8pm (lecture, part ii)
*The artist requests only that you 1) draw a pterodactyl without looking up “pterodactyl” (or related words), and 2) spend no more than five minutes on the drawing, using any materials you have on hand.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
A Pope's 1711 poem: “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread”. This is about trans-lating pterodactyls in a lecture in several parts.
Wings of pterodactyls; they soar skies and plunge oceans.
Pterodactyls are not dinosaurs; they are actually extinct and descendantless
“Pteordactyl” is not a proper name. So who are we summoning?
Age old question: “Who put the P in pterodactyls?”
A confession: For the longest time, I pretended I liked dinosaurs, but I secretly only loved pterosaurs. It was roughly the same time when I learnt that pterosaurs, colloquially known as pterodactyls, are not dinosaurs that I realised I am trans-. Would histories have changed if I had been taught that pterosaurs are not dinosaurs earlier? By the prefix “trans-”, I don’t mean I am (merely) not cisgender, but, e.g., translation, transcribable, transnational… It is what the prefix points to—something across, beyond, through, on another side, etc. Just something else. One is led by coincidences of likeness and parallelity to think about “pterodactyl” and “trans-” linguistically and not metaphorically. “Ptero-”, from its root, “to rush, to fly, fleeting, wings”—if wise men say “only fools rush in”, who is fearful of reading? Can I be the hovering fool who rereads and rereads?
As preparation for this installation alongside a two-part lecture, I have invited some friends to draw me “pterodactyls” and packed a suitcase full of pterodactyls. When assessing all these pterodactyls, questions rise: How does flatness affect our perception? How is flatness portrayed? How do you hug something that is flat? What should I do with all these flatnesses?
A note from the artist:
Fools rush in Here; Angels fear to Read (Four trans-lated indexes of pterodactyls) is the fourth piece on pterodactyls. All lectures are first constructed and gathered through research, then later expanded as site-responsive pieces on site.
Other lectures include Things about the Informal Pterodactyl (2023), A Second Case Study: Informal Pterodactyl (Some Reconsiderations of Linguistic Territories) (2023), A Third Thought on Pterodactyl (2025).
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
olivier is an artist, cataloguer, and pessimist. They have 1 cat and 2 bikes.
They find pleasure through copy-and-editing with participatory installation, drawings, videos, sutures, artists’ publications, surveys, speculative writing, etc., and have a secret mail-art practice. As an exiled person toying with “languaging”, they consider their practice rooted in ephemerality and the anarchival. They consider their medium as “re-reading”, unfolding in the creases of “para-” and “trans-” ness.
olivier has lectured, performed, exhibited, and published internationally in institutions such as the Poetry Foundation and Joanne Waxman Library, museums including Hammer Museum and Hong Kong Arts Centre, and artist-run spaces including in Chicago, New York City, Maine, and London…and perhaps your dream state. Their ideal exhibiting space is a playground.
Working as an archivist, olivier is also an adjunct assistant professor and artists’ assistant. They are the founder of an experimental UFO archive The UFO Lobby (2021–). olivier holds an MFA in Studio Arts and an MA in Visual and Critical Studies.
Born and raised in British Hong Kong, olivier and their time machine are temporarily stuck in this dimension. So it goes…