Guy Oliver was one of the two recipients of the Jerwood/FVU Awards 2020: Hindsight. The project awarded him with £25,000 to develop his winning proposal and make the significant moving-image work You Know Nothing of My Work.
The work was exhibited at Jerwood Space, London and online from 29 October – 13 December 2020.
For additional content including interviews, clips and exhibition images visit the FVU website
You Know Nothing of My Work
Guy Oliver’s project is a multi-chapter rumination on the cultural dilemma of the disgraced popular icon. Considering how collective, systematic failure led to cases of abuse from powerful figures in the cultural scene, this work proposes a conflict between the enjoyment of and respect for their creative work and what we now know (or at times failed to recognise) about their behaviour. Can we erase the existence of abusive yet influential figureheads, or should we acknowledge and discuss their actions alongside their work? Through a piece that uses elements of film musical and music video traditions within the form of an experimental essay, Oliver takes the pulse of society’s reaction to this fast-evolving and contentious subject.
You Know Nothing of My Work was commissioned for the Jerwood/FVU Awards 2020: Hindsight, a collaboration between Jerwood Arts and Film and Video Umbrella.