Wed 28 February 2018 13:00-13:30
Bower Ashton
Oliver Bliss is a textile based artist who enjoys working on different craft based techniques with a participatory focus. he constructed images through layering digital and drawn images which are then constructed into a collage. The piece is then sewn into using traditional approaches of quilting and banner making. Bliss will present his experiences as a participatory based artist discussing some of his previous projects. These include a quilt project which celebrates the 396 Members of Parliament (MPs) that voted in favour of same sex marriage bill 2013. The quilt is a political map with all 650 MPs constituencies. A community banner working Manchester and Liverpool Pride’s to create a community based banners which represented the values of the Alternative Fashion Festival who showcase the unique, the unusual, the beautiful; highlighting wonderfully diverse subculture through an annual fashion show to social change around prejudice & hate crime and the Lesbian Immigration Support Group who are an organisation who protect and support women in Greater Manchester who are lesbian and bisexual asylum seekers and refugees. He also has online project called #Bookdraw featured on YouTube. These weekly videos explore LGBTQIA+ characters (queer characters) in fiction. The videos are reviews of different novels and the creation of an image to help explore themes within selected stories. #Bookdraw aims to raise visibility of queer literature and inspire more people to read diversely.