Photo Fringe 2022

Olana Light is a visual artist who uses sculpture, installation, performance, and film to explore timeless questions of belonging, identity, and otherness. She make immersive, disorientation, otherworldly installation and wearable sculptures which are the mythic representation of my worldview. Inhabited by the creature that is neither human nor alien, real or imaginary, these environments and tactile costumes bend the fragile boundaries of our perceived reality. Occupying a space between the mundane and the unnervingly strange, her work reminds us of the ways we each search for meaning and belonging while alert to the uncanny world around us.

Olana says: "In these hyperreal times, we become more conscious of our true relationship with nature; we need to understand that we are deeply connected with it; it is vital to our survival. We could reveal how the human impact on the planet could create a dialogue for change. I want to adjust our perception of how we use our resources; make us think more deeply about the impact our lifestyle choices have on the planet; transform the relationship between society and nature - to reconnect people with nature. I want to inspire us to build unimagined future worlds - to live in harmony with nature and to make the world a better place for those around us and who come after us.

My work reflects the multiplicity of identity and the never-ending pursuit of belonging. Exploring notions of the ‘self’, and its connection with the body and nature in the world, this work presents new perceptions by challenging audiences to accept the absurdity of the Other. Viewers invited to observe the story of human creatures blending back with their natural environment and creating a ‘we-world’- an inclusive environment at the intersection of all systems, a realm in which everybody belongs."

Since graduating from the BA Fine Art course at Southampton Solent University in 2017, Olana has also completed Masters in Fine Art at Goldsmiths University of London, graduating in 2020. Olana received the National Lottery Project Grant in 2022 and 2021. She is one of the nine winners of the Lucky Dip 2021 bursary scheme by 'a space' arts. She is a winner of the Little Forest Open Competition 2022, the Zealous Stories Sculpture 2021, and the Sunny Art Prize Award 2020. She has been shortlisted for the Zealous Stories: Short Film 2022, the Zealous Stories Performance 2020; Batsford Prize Award 2019 and 2017; the Harvest Short Film Competition 2019; the Visual Art Open Prize 2018; the Nasty Women International Art Prize 2018. She has received the Goldsmiths International Response Scholarship Award 2017.

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Photo Fringe invited artists to propose a single image to engage audiences and help us imagine a greener, fairer world. Artists were asked to respond to the question “How can photography make a difference to the climate crisis?"

The resulting outdoor exhibition of selected images by twenty artists can be found on Worthing seafront until the end of April 2023.

Sponsored by Metro Imaging Ltd with funding from Arts Council England National Lottery Project Fund and Worthing Borough Council.