We are delighted to announce Olana Light as our 2022 Competition winner. Her work ‘Searching for a Place to Belong’ can now be seen on the 4th Plinth during Art in the Garden 2022 until 4th June. Full event details here.
The work is in two parts – the wearable sculpture on the Plinth and an accompanying video.
“Searching for a Place to Belong reflects the multiplicity of identity and the never-ending pursuit of belonging. Arising from the sea of pebbles, the mysterious creature yearns for an encounter with passers-by but shies away and looks back to blend with its natural environment. Exploring notions of the self and connection with the body, others, and nature, this work challenges perceptions and asks us to accept the absurdity of the Other.”
Olana Light’s practice moves between sculpture, performance and moving image. She makes immersive, disorientating, otherworldly installations and wearable sculptures which are mythic representations of her worldview. Inhabited by the creature that is neither human nor alien, real or imaginary, these environments and tactile costumes bend the fragile boundaries of our perceived reality. Occupying a space between the mundane and the unnervingly strange, her work reminds us of the ways we each search for meaning and belonging, while alert to the uncanny world around us.
Olana Light is based in Hampshire. She has an MA from Goldsmiths (2020) and BA from Southampton Solent University (2017). Recent awards include an Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant (2021); ‘a space’ arts Lucky Dip Bursary (2021); Zealous Stories Sculpture (2021); the Sunny Art Prize Award (2020); and the Goldsmiths International Response Scholarship Award (2017). She was also shortlisted for the Zealous Stories: Short Film (2022); the Zealous Stories Performance (2020); Batsford Prize Award (2019 and 2017); the Harvest Short Film Competition (2019); the Visual Art Open Prize (2018); the Nasty Women International Art Prize (2018); and the Platform Graduate Award (2017) (nominated by Aspex Gallery).
Olana’s website – https://olanalight.wixsite.com/svetlana
Art in the Garden 2021
Svetlana showed ‘High Five’ at Art in the Garden 2021. At the preview she delighted us with a performance of ‘We Are Not Ourselves’, interacting with the artworks and the environment.
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