“Spirited by nature, Oliver’s work within the parameters of wood draws upon landscape to fuel and embolden his curiosity. His impetus to create comes from a place of wanting to engage in the existence of things. To him, the workshop is his sanctuary, and a place to explore his curiosity of what is means to be human. His process and requirement to communicate through unconventional language is a deeply personal experience, to which the outcome is really only the residue of that process.
Creating forms is the starting point for Oliver’s enquiries, quickly becoming captivated by surface, an act of play ensues. The building up of patinas through staining, stripping back and reworking, sandblasting or carving offer further development of his applied intuition.
Oliver’s work benefits from an intimate conversation between material and maker. Further developing a tangible self-portrait, acknowledging continual development and reflection of where he is psychologically at the time, drawing upon cultural and personal enquiries. The pieces themselves becoming a biographical framework hinting at the the unanswerable.’
