Jacob Flint Oliver
(they/them)
Through installation, photography and sound, I interrogate the human obsession with arbitrary systems of classification, and in particular how nonbinary gender identity can destabilise these systems. Nonbinariness is, for me and for many, an absence of identification; an expression of a desire to sidestep out of the solidity of gender and instead become undefined, un-preconceived, something which lies somewhere between (or kilometres away from) 1 and 0. Some find humans existing outside of human-determined human systems threatening and display an impressive degree of determination in denying them this mode of existence. Other forms of this denial are much subtler – conceptions and restrictions on identities and bodies ingrained in the fabric of society. My work aims to point out how ridiculous the commonly accepted ideas on gender can be, and communicate an experience of living with having those ideas inscribed in one’s topology, despite not remembering subscribing to them.
21 grams is the weight of the gap between the two things you are not
Much of the work in this show began with private performances, experiments which I conducted on my body, from which data and results were then extracted and abstracted, presented in absurd, uninterpretable terms. Through layers of processing, the body is obscured, its presence instead disconcertingly implied through proportions and curvature, gut-like silicone and poured wax. Three slowly detuning sine waves – ghost-hunting data mapped to their pitches – permeate the space and the bodies within it.
For Sale: Price on Request
For Sale: Price on Request
For Sale: £180 per piece
For Sale: £550
