...That technology moves us both forward and backward is odd but seems to be a fact of life. Almost from the time that photography was invented, artists, in an attempt to make mechanical reproduction appear painterly, have been altering their negatives every which way. And while digital photography has certainly made the task easier, the challenge of wresting meaning from fragments has never diminished. A good example is Gerhard Richter’s monumental photo-based mural, Strontium, on view in the lobby of the de Young Museum. Using deep sampling it attempts to depict the reality of atomic particles, but only succeeds in making it even more unfathomable. Olson, using a similar method, attempts to inject new meaning (and a similar sense of blurry wonderment) into digitally reconstructed photographs. She fills hers full of rich, nature-based associations that bridge the gap between high modernist practice and the fast-evolving digital future, one in which essences once described by carbon and water are now represented in binary terms...
– David M. Roth, Squarecylinder.com, June 11. 2011)
