Body, Memory House: Basement Version
Body, Memory House: Basement Version, is an artist's book rendition of Oliver's debut chapbook Body, Memory House (Gingerbug Press).
The text follows the narrator through a psychedelic house, confronting a different relationship in each room that must be revisited. The House Essay articulates the various nuances of relationships and hyper-sexuality as a result of trauma, organized in a way which mimics the conscious examination of trauma as a means to move past it.
The text, started in Ireland, 2019, and completed in late 2021, served as a roadmap and grounding point for the installation shown in Proximity (Grossman Gallery, Boston, MA). The series curated for Proximity consists of seven photographic prints and four poems printed on organza, utilizing the relationship between diaristic text and image-making to document the re-performance of memory— at once revealing and concealing, as memory often turns to autofiction. The use of self portraits complicates the photographs position as ‘the truth,’ questioning the reliability of personal narrative and ownership of the self.
The sentiment body = memory house is slowly becoming the thesis of my practice.
8.5" x 11" x 2" Matte inkjet film, clear acrylic, magnet binding, clamshell box
Tattoo Book
A twenty-two page photo album of the artist's tattoos, captured on a flatbed scanner. Each photo frame includes stylized and distorted text, naming the tattoo, the year inked, and the general location of the appointment. From the artist's statement: I was interested in documenting the body’s current state, especially through a process that simultaneously objectifies and abstracts it. I liked the implications of the flatbed scanner as well, using it to copy and document the information of the body. The kerning has been adjusted to transition the text from individual characters towards more asemic expressions to be viewed as imagery, rather than text. My intention for this project was to further develop the ideas of objectification through image making, the obscurity of information, and “sterile” data collection of organic information.
4.75 x 5.25 x 2" binders board; book cloth; grommets; machine-made paper; bracelet
Characters
Started in spring of 2020, Characters, an ongoing series where I disguise myself as different exaggerated forms of my own identity, allows me to explore and catalog different aspects of my own gender and sexuality— posing as everyone from the brother I’ve never had, or could be, to a fisher, to a sort of disgraced Mary, ultimate symbol of maternity and innocence.
The creation of these characters has also become part of the work, as I shoot myself getting into character, and secretly make the images in my childhood home. Partial or incomplete costumes are essential, as the recognition of self is crucial in emphasizing the performance and indulgence of the photo and character— while also giving a nod to others in rural or inaccessible areas that must make due with what they’ve got to express themselves. The posturing and physicality that possesses me as I complete these disguises continues to be of interest and I consider this series to be limitless.
Characters is currently compiled in a 24 page photobook, hand assembled with binder rings and printed on epson matte paper, in an edition of thirty.
