Artists: Olivia Mc Gilchrist

Artist Statement

The image of the lost parent continually becomes Other until it finally ceases to exist at all; a disturbing scenario for the child seeking refuge in the scarce relics of said parent's life.

This group of 'character studies' of my self, was created as an appendix to the narrative of a larger work in progress entitled 'My Dear Daddy'.

My Jamaican father, Francois McGilchrist, died twenty five years ago. He was forty two, I was six, yet I have always felt strongly connected to his memory. As his image was starting to fade, I was suddenly required to move back to his home land, (also my birth-land) living at 'Wilmar', an empty house which lingers with traces of a Jamaican heritage that I am struggling to make my own.

His image has now taken an unprecedented weight in my life which this body of work tries to rationalise through a series of narrative still images and a short video which were all created at 'Wilmar' over the last six months.

Biography
Born in Kingston, Jamaica Olivia Mc Gilchrist was educated in France and the U.K. She received a French Baccalaureat, specialising in Literature and Philosophy (1997) and holds a B.A. In Fine Art from Middlesex University, London 2000-2003) and an M.A. in Photography from the London College of Communication (2009-2010). She lives and works in Kingston, Jamaica dividing her time as Assistant Curator at the National Gallery of Jamaica and teaching at the edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts.

Exhibitions

2008 - Solo show: Portraits of Women at Madame Lillies Art Space, London, UK
part of the Photomonth, East London Photography Festival 2008
2009
- PH74 Gallery artists group show, Espacio 8, Madrid, Spain
- Photomonth, East London Photography Festival, Pebbledash Gallery, London, UK
- A Distance Between:exploring European Identity through Photography, Pebbledash Gallery, London, UK
- - M.A Photography students from London College of Communication / Ecole Louis Lumiere, Paris : part of the Photomonth, East London Photography Festival 2009
2010
- Reports from an ordinary Satellite, work in progress from LCC MA Photography, Fachhochschule Bielefeld University gallery, Germany<
- Reports from an ordinary Satellite, work in progress from LCC MA Photography, Rhubarb-Rhubarb Photography festival, AE Harris, Birmingham, UK
- Renaissance Photography Prize Exhibition, The Hospital Club, London, UK
- M.A.P. 10 Final Show of the M.A Photography at the London College of Communication, London, UK
2011 -JCDC Fine Art Exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica

Artists: Olivia Mc Gilchrist

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