Predictions
Cardboard, paper, card, paint, pencil, embroidered foam, felt and foam core.
50x50x60cm
2010

Predictions (Detail)
Cardboard, paper, card, paint, pencil, embroidered foam, felt and foam core.
50x50x60cm
2010

Intuition (Detail)
Paper, card, paint and pencil, mounted on layered paper and wood.
100x140cm
2009

Crude Harmony
Pencil on paper
40x60cm
2009

Ons Handschoenhuwelijk
Pencil on paper
60x80cm
2009

Oliver Braid

hen I was 9 years old, at school, my class had to do an exercise focused on writing a wish list of objects that your friends would like to receive as presents.

I was so embarrassed by the idea of having to specify the people who I considered to be my friends. I began to worry that I didn’t actually have any friends and, publically, the class would contest any name I wrote down.

I spent the whole hour trying to find other things to do, to ignore the blank paper, so that at the end of the lesson I got into trouble because my teacher thought I just couldn’t be bothered.

When I was 23 years old I was having a really stressful time, feeling that because I had done an undergraduate degree in Fine Art I should carry on making objects. But I had no idea of what I really wanted to make or do.

That summer my friend had a zombie birthday party. When planning my costume I made a Facebook zombie outfit. I got up every morning and wanted to work on it.

It was this, alongside other handmade cards and birthday gifts for my friends, which I realized I was most motivated to make and think about. Work which celebrates friendships and having a beautiful time

In my work there is often an implied narrative – usually a very convoluted one.

In this narrative there is usually a protagonist who is experiencing a joyful situation.