Ryan Oliver
My works are predominately large scale photomontages; intricately composed canvases carved with the sumptuous imagery and vivid colour that bombards us everyday in glossy magazines. There is a careful and considered use and abuse of the stolen images. A hijacking of the usually banal and oversexed characterisation of the female form. Women are mere clotheshorses, pimped by big business to offload product promising the superficial and unattainable dream of perfection.
My works chew up corporate advertising and spits it back to the tune of different politics. Amid the deformed figures, nudity and violent insanity I hope my intentions can be extracted and that I am not mistaken simply as a provocateur. Of course my works warrant accusations; juvenal? Grotesque? Irreverent? Many expect art to be morally uplifting, but in a world where obscene acts of violence, torture and barbarism are reported on the news everyday the expectation is absurdly unrealistic. To shock is a hypothesis that can be associated with my work, an assumption unjustified when witnessing actual reactions to it.
