About Collector
Collector is a video and photo-sculpture exhibition centred on Richard, a British hunter and taxidermy collector. This body of work is a study in the historical and conceptual link between hunting and photography, and the power dynamics of the “gaze” that envelopes both practices. Libby “takes”, “captures”, and “shoots” Richard with his collection in various extravagant staged sets.
There is always power involved with being an artist who communicates and represents another human in their work. While the starting point of Collector was on how identity is facilitated by one’s possessions, it eventually veered into being more about the construction of idealized images, myth-making and the relationship between artist and their muse.
About Libby Oliver
Libby Oliver is a queer photo, video and installation artist working on the unceded Territories of the lək̓ wəŋən Speaking Peoples. Her work provides reflection on the determinants of identity, specifically through the lens of material culture. She creates intimate portraits of people, their spaces, and their belongings. Libby enlists the active involvement of family, friends, acquaintances, and— more often than not—strangers she meets through the internet or by chance on the street. She works to decode the social language and value system surrounding “stuff”— and the ways in which objects and clothing inform identities and perceptions of others.
Libby studied International Relations at the University of Guelph before receiving her BFA in visual arts from the University of Victoria (2018). Her photo portrait series, Soft Shells earned international recognition and has been featured in textbooks, books and news outlets around the world (the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Stylist France, Colossal, Il Post, BBC, CBC). Since graduation she was awarded a BC Arts Council Career Development Grant, several exhibitions including a solo show at the Musée de la Civilisation, and Gallery Stratford, a residency with the Slade School of Fine Art, a Canada Arts Council Project Grant, a BC Arts Council Pivot Grant, and a 10-month artist-in-residency in a senior care home, which she developed with curator Regan Shrumm and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV). Libby is currently developing her videography skills with funding from the BC Arts Council Pivot Grant.