An interview with Oli Wortley:
What’s your contribution towards organising the degree show?
I’ve suggested an artist who lectured at my previous university, (I transferred here at the beginning of my second year) to be guest speaker at our degree show opening. I’m also on the design team, putting together the degree show catalogue.
What are you currently working on?
I’ve been working on one project with various materials – printmaking, photography, drawing, sound and text. I want people to be in awe of the earth as a physical being, as mother of everything. Whereas icon painters painted religious figures, this seems misguided and these aren’t real. The earth is real – not god. Earth is god.
I want to explore how human beings relate to the earth as a thing, our relationship to the earth. There’s a verse in the Bible that says “remember man you are but dust, and unto dust you shall return”. Reminding people we’re not immortal, they’re going to be stardust again. This year I travelled to strange landscapes of Andorra and Iceland. Iceland is the quirky face of the earth. It’s the youngest place on earth. You can physically see land, earth, being made there.I realised there’s a theme recurring throughout my work, the mountain shape. And I’ve been developing the Mountain/Sun emblem as a symbol in my work. Hopefully it will be a symbol that will bring the whole work together.
What are your ideas for future work?
I want to make a film as a finalised work, with samples of the surrounding work on exhibition. The film is to reflect human beings’ destruction of the planet and suggest the connection to our actions.
Are there any difficulties you’ve come across?
Letting go of the photographs has been difficult, not getting attached to the images. Realising that I can’t make something as beautiful as the earth, can’t challenge the earth’s beauty. I can’t make something more beautiful than that.
