Artwork Collection

01 For Jurying Consideration

My work is mourning, unravelling and complicating my cross-dimensional relationship with my grandfather. Visually intertwining my body amongst my grandfather's digital archives and the turbulent ecology of his birthplace, Sao Miguel, Portugal, I co-opt the ghost as a speculative framework to reconcile his contradictory character. Across my body of work, I bridge the dive between life and death through the digital to engage spiritualists and skeptics in my ongoing search for personal futurity.

Painting

April

The ghost as a simultaneous coexistence of oppositions mirrors my grandfather's embodied experience of place. My grandfather was born on an island called Sao Miguel, one of nine islands in a volcanic archipelago off the coast of Portugal. Volcanoes... More

Essay

Apocryphal

Written research to accompany the five visual works, "April," "At these special occasions I think life is worth living," "Like a jewel thrown at a Polluted brookling," "One of the most difficult aspects of our existence is to make sense of it," and... More

Painting

At these special occasions I think life is worth living

In her chapter "Tentacular Thinking" from "Staying with the Trouble," Donna Haraway conceptualizes earthly existence as multiply connected, positing that our dependence on relationships is often more apparent during times of loss (38-39). For... More

Painting

Like a jewel thrown at a Polluted brookling

Throughout pop culture and science fiction, the empty chair and the mirror commonly signify an absent presence. Wise tales tell stories of empty chairs appearing to be filled at night or shadows looming in mirrors. In horror movies like "The... More

Painting

What a wonderful world it is, the world of software for computers

The Microsoft Word files and photo archives I ascertained from my grandfather's floppy disks were poorly re-formatted and low quality, but informed by Hito Steryl's theoretical engagements with the digital, these accidental abstractions struck me... More

Painting

One of the most difficult aspects of our existence is to make sense of it

Like volcanoes, ghost nets (abandoned fishing nets) constellated throughout Sao Miguel's oceans, co-mingle forces categorically defined as oppositional (Ghost Gear Removal Competitions") (De Wolffe). In "Plastic Naturecultures," Kim De Wolffe... More

Work by

Olivia Aguiar

Drawing and Painting

“In an 'auto-archeological' pursuit of identity, I began collecting my late grandfather's digital archives, downloading information from the library of floppy disks he left behind. The sloppily...” [More]