Education:

MFA Sculpture Royal College of Art. 2016-18
BA Hons Sculpture Camberwell College of Art, UAL. 2010-13. 1st Class Honours

 

For an up to date CV including exhibitions, please visit the artist's website

Francis Olvez-Wilshaw’s practice is a meditative inquiry on the questions and challenges of an identity split between one of a Imperialist lineage and the other, a son of a land defined by Western colonisation. He explores the consequences of one half- an overexposed Western influence (rooted in a rural working class Englishness) in his upbringing at the expense of the other half- a provincial Filipino one. He seeks to build a form of Filipino/English fantasy realism.

 

The work looks at a pre-colonial history and post-colonial anguish. Olvez-Wilshaw stages retellings of historical/fictional events with a minimal absurdist aesthetic that harks to the works of Samuel Beckett and the early video works of Bruce Nauman. The fictional events are drawn from the magical/folk writings of Filipino writer Nick Joaquin and from his own experience of being half Pinoy. These experiences have been informed through family trips and through anecdotes and photographs provided by his mother. 

 

Violence and destruction run through the history of the Philippines. The broken geographical landscape of the country and the contradictory layers that colonialism has brought is explored in rich environments and installations. Religion, family, war, matriarchy and power amalgamates into nihilistic repetitive performances and free standing sculptures. 

 

Text provided by the artist

Artist website: www.francisolvez-wilshaw.com

Instagram: @francisolvezwilshawartist