A N D Y                                                                         
        A L L E N — O L I V A R                       













ARTIST
STATEMENT

Andy Allen-Olivar is a multimedia based artist primarily working with photography, film, installation and text. He works with speculative narratives, magical realism and optics to explore a way of seeing. 


His work is dedicated to scientists and hoarders and those who bend their knees to see; to diggers and explorers; to what is written on the back of things, and to what is not; to unelaborated memories, and pasts which somehow rhyme with them; to pasts that are not necessarily one’s own; to history, to language and to ventriloquism, to traces and to rituals; to shortcomings; to a place changed over time; to hangovers and jet lag; to constructivist anthropology, parallel presents, slow magic; to the flavor and vividness of trying for a long time; to the thing that is missing and defines what it is missing from; to saving it for later; to the familiar, unconnected, out of reach; to myth; to proof; to knowing how something works, and still be surprised and humbled by it anyway; to hold something up to the light and feel the gravity in your feet.  



Previously, he worked in the postal industry.








EIGHT TIMES FOLDED
(2022)



GALLERI KONSTFACK

An exhibition of interchangeable light boxes.

Each containing various arrangements of  archival photos, found photos, stolen photos, photos taken by the artist, collected objects, saints, gifts, debris, photocopies, tearsheets, material hidden from sight, and text.

For my mother and my father; for Carlos and Ita; for my brothers Josh, Matty and Tom. Of course, of course. All of which I have the pleasure of being alike.



Supported by the Axel N Andersson's foundation













POLISHED BRONZE, STILL WARM TO THE TOUCH, STILL (2022)



FILM

Short film (27 minutes)

A hybrid documentary on the Welsh diaspora living in Patagonia, Argentina. A film following missing dogs, a metal detectorist, talking trees and more. 

https://vimeo.com/339421098












ARMADILLOS & LEOPARDS [Held up to the Light]
(2018)



FILM

Short Film (11 minutes)

In this film, we are played the familiar ritual of a metronomic slideshow projection, punctuated and interrupted with a collage of text and sound.

The slides projected consist of an arrangement of both the artists and found by the artist and sounds recorded by the artist or found by the artist.

The video explores ideas of time, possibility and tactility. Of internal voices, ventriloquism, memories and talk of stones.


https://vimeo.com/309272982












a.allenolivar@gmail.com