Oliver Ventress
Oliver Ventress is a video and installation artist who has a primary concern with the idea of Being as a Medium; evidential documentary footage and romantic pursuits to capture isolated natural landscape and existence on tape. Works have included a series of attempts to make contact with aliens, the formation of a UFO spotting network, a para-terrestrial seance and the documented seeking of a sea monster.
Working with rudimentary analogue technology and with concerns of an uncertain future, the documents occupy a physical space in plastic casing, away from the instability of cyberspace and digital corruption. They wait to be discovered by our successors: human or otherwise. Footage is recorded data: it exists post-event, attempting to provide evidence for something which is unproven, or unidentified. Video files and documentary films in cassette tapes produce a linear timeline or pathway of a journey set in time. Placed onto monitors or framed as stills they become objects to be encountered, providing a visual investigation into movement; presence; potentiality.
Recent work consists of a quest to capture visual data from elements of human experience to translate into indestructible objects, which will be left behind ready for the future extraterrestrial invasion of the Earth.
UKNA Projects:
Taking Place Lincoln - New Artist Collective