Olivier’s artistic practice is centred around the concept of salvage punk. He utilises found objects, predominantly internet ephemera, which he transforms, converses with and reappraises through performance, photography and video art.
For Hidden Door’s 2025 Festival Julien presents a video archival work of his drum performance to Peter Lilley’s infamous 1992 Tory party conference speech ‘I’ve Got a Little List’. The work is an attempt to re-substantiate, engage with and translate harmful YouTube ephemera from deep within the internet archive.
“The work functions as a conduit for my own memories bound through a complex personal and political history past, present and future. The speech given in 1992 (2 years before I was born) appropriates a song sung by the high lord executioner from the 1885 opera the Mikado. Attacking asylum seekers, benefit claimants, new age travellers and single parents Liley includes myself and my single mother (who received tax credits) amongst his roster of undesirables.”
“This piece attempts to draw an effective through line in these memories etching the Tory Party’s own history into my skin through ritualised performance. The piece also works to re-narrativise recent rhetoric around the Tory Party’s behaviour, that they have never been so bad, or incompetent or racist.”
Find out more at olivierjulien.co.uk
