Oliver on the press at Loft Editions.
“The works are based on stills taken from VHS tapes recorded by my grandparents on a holiday in Germany and Poland. Since moving to South Africa my grandparents didn’t have many opportunities to return to the geographical areas that they came from. I can imagine that this trip was very meaningful and nostalgic to them, filled with memories. I have taken the stills and translated them into woodcuts, taking care to retain the material markers of the VHS magnetic tape, but also inevitably adding the material marker of the woodcut print. Through this process I aim to expose the material dependency of images, the myth of the immediate image and by extension the material dependency of perception and memory.”
— Oliver Hambsch, 2023
— Oliver Hambsch, 2023
Proofing at Loft.
Prints drying at Loft Editions.
Oliver at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts in Norway.
Oliver Hambsch is a South African-born visual artist who works primarily in print-media. He completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art in 2019 and a Master of Fine Art degree in 2022 at the Michaelis School of Fine Art. The primary focus of his work is memory in its varied forms – individual, collective, familial, physiological and philosophical, and how a conceptual engagement with printmaking allows print to be used as a metaphorical device to express the processes and experiences of memory. His work is frequently based on found footage, specifically originating from his family’s photo and film archive. This found footage is usually re- or trans-mediated through one or several print processes. Oliver currently lives in Oslo, where he is working as a PhD research fellow conducting artistic research in printmaking.
