Artist Statement

As a Pennsylvania transplant, Olivia was hypnotized by the fantasy and delusion of Los Angeles and its hidden occult, sex, and glamour. Through years of collecting evidence as a sex worker in Los Angeles, she has created an archive of videos and journaling to source from in her work. Some experiences translated to vinyl flooring made from strip club receipts, screen-printed ephemera, and surveillance videos. Now in its final manifestation, she has used this as research for building a specific character, Crystal, the star in the short film Desert Prostitute, which she has written and directed. Desert Prostitute is our initiation to the magical reality of hot pink silicon animals, golden strap ons, and angels with gynecological tools. Both provocative and comical, Olivia stars in her film as the main character Crystal, a hot pink wigged prostitute experiencing a hallucination in the sand dunes of Nevada. The performance of struggling to care for her personified pink pet in a sand storm is narrated by a monologue of woven anecdotes, tangents, and philosophies on gender, religion, and sex work. The narration speaks in the language of a dramatized unstable woman searching for something to reignite her sexual divinity.