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.
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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
