Portfolio:

Elke Williams Comments to online exhibition:

As a tactile person I turn again and again to three dimensional artforms.
The way forms including the human form interact with space interests me.
Forms occupy space and create spaces in and around and in between them.
Forms are associated to gestures which are are attributed with emotional meaning.
Merging different forms creates new gestures and new meaning.

Recently I have become fascinated by Moebius strips which have only one edge and one side. Inner space can become outer space or merges into it, thus overcoming the strict syntax of form and interstitial space.
Over 25 years of living, working and making art with people who experience the world radically different from myself have taught me to value this equal potential for the attribution of meaning to form or space.

The very tactile and aesthetically pleasing Moebius strips offer different associations from different perspectives. As they seamlessly open they proffer the question: What is the connection between the physical and the spiritual-conceptual aspects of every form, be they human or otherwise?

Portfolio:

Portfolio:

Biography

Olive Hanlon was born in Dublin. After living in the West of Ireland for a number of years returned to the East and now resides in county Wexford.  Olive holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from the Institute of Technology, Sligo. Attending the National College of Art and Design, Dublin completed an MFA 2016. Olives practice explores Ireland’s Institutions and their impact on contemporary life through personal, familial and collective memories. Investigating her identity through her heritage as an Irish woman, she brings to the fore the importance of ignorance and examines the helplessness of disenfranchisement. She considers our acquiescence to “how things are done” and questions why Irish society has facilitated those in positions of power to hold dominion over its peoples.

Artist Statement

Olive Hanlon

Exploring personal, familial and collective memories within my practice allows me to engage with the past. I use memories to explore my heritage and my identity through our history. I am examining the past through the impact it had on “today’s” future. As I explore our countries institutions; of State and Church. I am constantly aware of a space, an interlocking space between the Irish State and the Catholic Church. An existence of conjoined power between both of these powerful institutions. It’s through these institutions that I explore my heritage as an Irish woman questioning “how things were done”. While examining the indelible print that was left on the lives of Irish women.

Positioning my practice within contemporary culture through my theme of memory. I begin my exploration delving into past memories along with stories. Investigating within my art practice and through the medium of installation, allows for an exploration and engagement with the theme of memory. As I explore through materials a means of visually transcribing the narrative that I want to express. My process often begins in site visits and photography, followed on into drawing through the etching and scratching of paper as I explore objects found and unfound. Using ubiquitous materials, allowing the materials to find their own language. It’s in the manipulation of the material’s and objects; that I fine a pivotal means of conveying what I want my work to portray. As the narrative unfolds generating a discourse, in which the viewer may engage.