CuratorSpace Artist Bursary #18: Oliver Bliss

Oliver Bliss is a Queer Craftivist using textiles to explore themes of identity and sexuality. Themes include contemporary hero worship, body image, celebrity, activism, and gender variation.

"My project features largescale handmade pictorial contemporary textile tapestries of the male form, inspired by images of tatoos and body art posted on Instagram. My use of textiles aims to subvert notions of masculinity. The work explores how and why we post images of ourselves on social media. The inclusion of tattoos suggests how they can be seen as aggressive, defiant, dominant, and an armour over our skin. However, they can also be beautiful, displaying emotionally significant stories which are sensitive and reveal the vulnerability of a person.

This work will contribute to a national touring exhibition entitled #SoftLads. I am partnering with The Word Association, a community interest company that specifically works with marginalized communities. Previously, we delivered a series of creative writing workshops that led to the development of an anthology. My aim is to include the publication in the tour, along with a selection of the writers yo perform alongside the work and host audience engagement workshops. This project builds on a previous regional tour between Birmingham with Styx Gallery and SHOUT! Festival at The Henry Sandon Hall in Worcester."

You can see more of Oliver's work on his Linktree.

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