Olivia Hicks (b 1971, Kent, UK) is a visual artist and her practice is focused on the relationships between drawing, painting, sculpture, performance and print. She draws from a mix of folklore, architectural theory, historical references, belief systems and magical realism to explore the permeabilities between the body, complex emotional states and architectural /transient spaces and natural landscapes. These spaces are often inhabited by otherworldly creatures or spirits, drifting their way in and out of reality. She is interested in the sculptural idea of both the room and the body as a container or vessel which objects and emotions can pour in and out of, and drain leak or overflow, or even move through portals into new dimensions.

Her work is often influenced by a sense of place with a strong connection to nature where a narrative thread runs within it which pieces it all together. This can include layers of stories blending together from history, folklore, rituals or from one of her many literary influences. She is interested in the gothic, surreal and magical realism. The power held within narratives, whether they be present or historical and the balance between truth and untruths and everything in between fascinates her and informs her work.

She begins a new series of work often by firstly reading, researching and sometimes writing a story/poem around her ideas or visiting a particular place of historical significance. The work can often be situated in a mixture of architectural spaces, ranging from domestic interiors to transient spaces, public architectural forms or unusual natural landscapes. Based on these interior worlds that she creates within these spaces  she then begins to make lots of drawings, sculptural objects, paintings and prints. This process usually culminates in installations that blend  narratives and time zones together to create an alternative reality, which can often help overcome different emotions or confront complex past life events and weave together personal social history, spirituality and ancestry.

While she is interested in what can be embodied in architecture, she also looks to the status of the body itself and its relationship to its surroundings. The skin can be visualised as a magical architectural membrane that holds us together. Within her narratives and imaginary worlds characters are created, much as in short stories and the psychological and physical effects on them of the built and natural environment are key to her explorations.

The fetish like objects, drawings, paintings and prints that she makes inhabit a blend of architectural spaces (either in the body or in a place) that use ideas of “apotropaic”(protective) folklore and magic that can defend, protect, constrain or invigorate the body.