Jacky Oliver

​

Also shown in

Linear expression 2022

Surface edge shadow 2022

​

Unearthed 2023

​

Jacky has collaged together research from her residency at Poole Museum to create the ‘Ship to shore’ series, taking inspiration from interviews with veterans and civilians about their memories of the events leading up to D Day.

​

"People would come into the Museum; some were just babies on the day when the thousands of ships and landing craft left. One man brought in sketches his father had made, while a woman brought in a certificate for bravery, for her mother’s part in the French resistance. Eddie, one of the frequent visitors, brought in a document, with handwritten notes about the day on the back."

​

This was a pivotal moment in Jacky’s career, where she started using the beauty of the different qualities of handwriting from different generations. She researched local archives in Poole and Portsmouth as well at National archives, finding maps, diagrams of the ships and landing crafts, military badges, and newspaper articles. All this material was collaged together etching it into and through the surfaces of pieces that echo landing craft. Working with simple two-dimensional outlines and more complex three dimensional interpretations, the pieces bring together the research, but also try to suggest the qualities of the eroded remains of the Mulberry harbours, still sitting on the Normandy shore.